To: Judge Kari Bloom

From: The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center

Date: February 16, 2023
Re: Hamilton County Juvenile Justice Assessment: Findings, Recommendations, and Action Steps

Background and Activities

The CSG Justice Center conducted a comprehensive assessment of Hamilton County’s juvenile
justice system to identify opportunities for improvement in promoting community safety and
positive outcomes for youth. To understand opportunities, priorities, and potential solutions, we
engaged in the following activities:
 Quantitative analysis: Examined case-level data over a multi-year period (2017-2021),
covering complaints through commitments.
 Qualitative analysis: Conducted focus groups with more than 100 stakeholders and
reviewed policies from multiple entities.
 Community engagement subcommittee: Established a community engagement
subcommittee to ensure youth, family, and community voice were incorporated into the
process.
 Task force and presentations: Facilitated a launch meeting of the task force and
presented diversion and detention findings to court leadership and an internal court
working group.
 Biweekly meetings: Maintained regular biweekly meetings with key points of contact.

Key Findings
1. In 2021, 73 percent of court referrals consisted of unruly, traffic, violation of court
order, and first-time misdemeanor cases. HCJC could more effectively serve youth and
improve community safety by expanding diversion to additional low risk youth.

2. Detention intakes are comprised mostly of low-level offenses, and 62 percent of youth
are released without being admitted to detention. The detention screening instrument
currently being used is not consistent with the research, and the majority of admissions
to detention (75%) have an automatic hold, including violations of probation.

3. Probation supervision can be strengthened to more effectively serve medium and high
risk youth by expanding service options, implementing incentives, and decreasing the
length of stay (youth exiting official probation in 2021 averaged 547 days on probation).

4. Most youth that are placed or committed out-of-home were already on official
probation or under probation investigation, and in 2021, about half were medium risk
(55% and 47% respectively). Hamilton County lacks a targeted strategy to address high
risk behaviors in the community.
 5. Key priorities identified across stakeholders included improved mental health and
trauma treatment, supporting gun-involved youth and youth with escalating/complex
behavior, ensuring culturally aligned services, increasing family engagement, more
effective reentry planning, and service quality and collaboration.

Based on these assessment findings, the CSG Justice Center recommends that the court
prioritize the following areas for improvement.
A. Expand diversion opportunities so that low-risk youth do not penetrate further into
the juvenile justice system. This includes expanding diversion eligibility criteria and
examining pathways for how youth can be referred to the system, implementing a
research-based risk screening tool, and enhancing the capacity of the assessment center
to serve as an intake center to divert low-risk youth from detention and court.

B. Ensure that detention is being used only for youth that pose a public safety risk. This
includes revising the detention screening tool to align with the research, developing
criteria and policies for the use of overrides, and restricting detention for youth are not
a risk to public safety, such as status offenses or for technical violations.

C. Revise supervision policies to reduce length of stay, support positive behavior change,
and address high risk behavior in the community. This includes revising the probation
supervision classification chart to include alternative to placement options, developing
data reports and case reviews to look at length of stay, and enhancing graduated
sanctions and incentives policies to focus more on incentives and family engagement.

D. Build a continuum of effective and equitable service provision. This includes cultivating
relationships with community mentors/credible messengers, promoting culturally
specific solutions, building relationships with new service providers, and developing
quality assurance and procurement policies to ensure that providers are achieving
intended outcomes.

Key Next Action Steps

 Convene a leadership team to guide creating a vision and culture and lead overarching
system improvement across work groups, including a focus on training and
collaboration.
 Create work groups around key priorities to review current policies, data analysis, and
develop/implement action plans for short and long-term improvement.
 Create a work group focused specifically on developing a targeted strategy for youth
involved in violence/firearms across system points.
 Identify key indicators and performance measures that should be collected and tracked
across system points to develop new data reports.
About the CSG Justice Center
The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan
organization representing state officials in all three branches of government that supports states
to increase public safety and improve outcomes for youth and adults in the justice system.
Among other initiatives, we use an objective, data-driven approach to help state leaders to
assess their juvenile justice systems and align their policies, practices, and funding with what
research shows is effective. Examples of our work with juvenile justice systems can be found at:
https://csgjusticecenter.org/projects/improving-outcomes-for-youth/