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Court News Ohio
National
Resources Sought in Reducing Ohio’s Repeat Juvenile Offenders
By Stephanie Beougher
February 19, 2016
The Ohio Supreme Court hosted a two-day meeting focused on finding ways
to reduce the number of repeat juvenile offenders.
Ohio is one of eight states selected to participate in a site visit
with the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center’s National
Reentry Resource Center (NRRC). The site visit on Feb. 17-18 at the
Thomas J. Moyer Ohio Judicial Center focused on: Research that
demonstrates effectiveness in reducing recidivism and improving
outcomes for youth arrested and in contact with the juvenile justice
system
Best practices for measuring recidivism and other youth outcomes and
using this data to guide system policy and resource allocation
The opportunity to receive federally funded technical assistance from
the NRRC to develop a statewide plan to improve outcomes for youth.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor spoke to the group about
progress being made to improve outcomes for youth under supervision in
the state and local juvenile justice system. She noted the ability of
courts and justice system partners to share information through the
Ohio Courts Network (OCN).
“Currently, 63 percent of the cases in juvenile court is searchable in
the OCN. We continue to make headway here as there are nine juvenile
courts coming online soon that will account for an additional 12
percent of the juvenile case volume available through the OCN,” Chief
Justice O’Connor said.
Additionally, she talked about the proposed amendment to the Rules of
Superintendence for the Courts of Ohio that, if approved, would mandate
local courts adopt rules to better regulate shackling of youths during
court proceedings.
There were several different stakeholder groups who met with NRRC,
including judges, state lawmakers, and probation and correction
officers.
Holmes County Chief Probation Officer, and a member of the Ohio
planning team, Dave Williams, stated that in his focus group there was
consensus that local communities are open to consistent statewide
practices, and there is an opportunity to improve accessible services
that are evidence-based for all children in Ohio.
The Ohio team, which includes staff from the Ohio Supreme Court, county
juvenile courts, the Ohio General Assembly, the Department of Youth
Services, and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, will formally ask to
be a part of the CSG Justice Center’s Statewide Juvenile Justice
Improvement Initiative.
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