In 2021, New York State set out to fix a dire problem in its juvenile justice system: Black youth being unfairly criminalized because of their race. Five counties were each awarded $50,000 to devise plans for addressing that disparity.
The aim was to divert more young people charged with low-level offenses away from courthouses and into supportive services.
The effort is ongoing, and full results are yet to come. But initial findings suggest what’s possible.
In Schenectady County, just north of Albany, local officials established a new approach to decision-making that resulted in a 13% increase in the share of youth steered away from the juvenile justice system who were Black.
The changes happened on several levels. Instead of probation officers concluding on their own which youth should face charges after an arrest, a team of professionals weighed in. The social workers, behavioral health specialists and youth service agency staff discussed challenges the young person faced that may have led to the arrest, and what other types of interventions might steer them away from crime. Young people offered their input as well.
And for the first time in this majority-white county, demographics and any identifying information in case files that can tip off the team to a child’s race is now withheld. This “blind” system aims to eliminate implicit racial bias that may steer decision-makers to unfair conclusions.
In interviews with The Imprint, Schenectady County officials and national justice experts said the local changes show that even stubborn, systemic discrimination can be remedied.
“The success here came because county leadership was invested, the probation department was invested, and community partners were invested,” Arthur Butler of the county’s Human Rights Commission said.
Why diversion matters
A growing body of neuroscience is driving reforms to the juvenile justice system nationwide, with greater recognition that teens have still-developing brains and are more prone to impulsive mistakes and risk-taking as they experiment and push boundaries.
Research also shows that youth given opportunities after breaking the law do better than those who are simply locked up. In detention, young people are exposed to peers who are deeper into the system and more likely to be re-arrested on release, the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has advised states.
Perhaps the most important tool for keeping youth out of juvenile lockups is early-stage diversion from the justice system, according to a 2022 report by The Sentencing Project, a national research and advocacy group. Studies show that diverted youth are less likely to be re-arrested and more likely to graduate high school, attend college and earn higher incomes as adults.
“Diverting kids out of court has much better outcomes,” said Richard Mendel, The Sentencing Project’s senior research fellow for youth justice. “We just use court way too much as a response to adolescent behavior.”
At a webinar sponsored by The Sentencing Project in June, a young person from Philadelphia identified as Jay underscored the importance of diversion.
He’d been arrested for stealing a car. Instead of being locked up, he participated in Healing Futures, a restorative justice diversion program operated by the Youth & Self-Empowerment Project. In one session, he apologized to the person whose car he’d stolen, and she forgave him, Jay recounted.
Before the program he’d been getting in trouble a lot and was doing poorly in school. Today his grades are up, and he holds a job. The project he participated in “made me less self-absorbed — like, other people matter,” he said.
In New York State, when teens are arrested on charges involving murder, sexual assault, or criminal possession of a weapon, their cases are sent to prosecutors and judges. Youth facing low-level charges such as vandalism or trespassing are referred by law enforcement to the county probation department.
In these less-serious cases, probation officers have two choices: divert the young person to mental health or substance abuse treatment, employment counseling or other supportive services, or send the case to court for prosecution and the possibility of sentencing to a detention facility.
As in other states, Black youth in New York are far less likely than white youth to be set on the diversion path. In 2022, statewide their cases were diverted 42% less often than cases involving white youth, according to an August report by the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services. County practices vary. In Chenango County, just 18% of Black youth were diverted from the justice system. In Delaware County that number is 73%.
New York’s diversion experiment
Policy Equity Academy sites in New York are testing whether the proportion of Black children diverted from court can be reduced through targeted efforts specific to each region. The projects pair probation departments with community groups in Albany, Monroe, Onondaga, Schenectady and Westchester counties. If successful, the reforms could be taken up by other counties around the state.
“we like to come to consensus — there’s give and take. I don’t think there’s been a time when we disagreed and we said, ‘we’re doing it our way.’”
— Justin Pinn, Schenectady County Probation Department
Initially, teams of eight to 10 people in each county were trained on key issues, including implicit bias, the origins of racial disparities and the reasons inequities persist. Each team analyzed its county’s demographic data at various decision points in the justice system and developed a local action plan.
Counties received $50,000 grants, plus technical assistance to put subsequent plans into action.
In Schenectady County in 2019, cases involving the county’s Black youth were 40% less likely to be diverted from the justice system than white youth — just below the New York average, state data show.
Nonetheless, the county “honestly hadn’t done anything intentional” to address the problem, said probation supervisor Elizabeth Greathouse.
But these days, the county has a new strategy to address the disparity. Instead of being the lone decision-makers about who goes to jail and who goes home, Schenectady County probation officers reach a conclusion together with a range of others. The team includes representatives of the county’s Department of Social Services, Children’s Behavioral Health, the District Attorney’s office, and the job-training agency Schenectady County Connects. Community groups include the Youth Advocate Programs; the homeless shelter Safe Inc. of Schenectady; and Together for Youth, a nonprofit serving children and families.
The team meets weekly to review cases in meetings that probation supervisor Justin Pinn called “a big brainstorm — a group approach.”
Though the probation officers make the final decision, “we like to come to consensus — there’s give and take,” said Pinn. “I don’t think there’s been a time when we disagreed and we said, ‘we’re doing it our way.’”
Pinn said the input helps probation officers deepen their understanding of a young person’s circumstances, and match services and opportunities to their needs. If they’re up against a substance addiction or family problems, assistance can include drug treatment, counseling and an evidence-based guided journaling program. If they mention athletics or the outdoors, they get chances to develop healthy interests through sports programs and outdoor activities like hiking and horseback riding. Some diverted youth are taken on trips to museums.
The program lasts three to five months, and can include mentoring or a community service project, like landscaping at a public housing project in cases involving property damage.
“We’re getting them involved in activities that maybe they wouldn’t have had access to had they not started working with us,” Pinn said. “We want to open them up to new things.”
The project also took on the problem of racial bias in diversion decisions. It attempts to steer professionals away from a racially prejudiced decision on whether a case should be diverted by omitting the young person’s identifying information. The approach was pioneered 15 years ago in Nassau County’s child welfare system, and has since been expanded statewide by New York State’s Office of Children and Family Services.
In Schenectady County, where Black children make up 15% of the population under age 18, the changes appear to have made a difference, project data show. In 2019, before the new approach began, 35% of the young people who local probation officers diverted were Black. In 2023, that percentage rose to 48%.
Youth also weigh in on their diversion plans. “Instead of us telling them what they’re going to do, we say, ‘Hey, what can you agree to?’” Butler said. That’s improved how often diversion agreements are followed, offering hope for longer-term success, he added.
Some diversion numbers down, others up
In the first three years of the Schenectady County Policy Equity Academy, there’s been one other, less favorable outcome.
While the share of diverted cases involving Black youth grew, the percentage of cases diverted for all races combined — Black, white, Latino, and all others — declined from 57% five years ago to 48% in 2023.
That is due to several factors, local officials say: A spike in more serious crimes meant fewer youth are eligible for diversion. In 2019, the share of cases diverted involving white youth made up nearly half of all diverted cases, but recent figures show that proportion had dropped to fewer than one-third. In addition, police are making fewer arrests for minor crimes that would be eligible for diversion— like petty larceny, fights in schools or criminal mischief, Pinn said.
The result is a smaller proportion of cases that can be diverted. That’s not likely to change anytime soon, Pinn added, as the mix of cases this year looks about the same as in 2023.
Still, the promising signs that disparity can be reduced have left leaders of Schenectady’s Policy Equity Academy feeling hopeful. Pinn said he hopes its model will be replicated statewide.
“We’d love for other counties to adopt this because we do see the benefits of meeting as a team and talking about cases together,” he said. To succeed, county leaders have to see the importance of upending the status quo.
“In other counties, they’d have to accept it, and acknowledge that they have a problem,” he said.
