BOSTON, Feb. 3, 2017–Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley joined the University of Massachusetts Boston, juvenile justice professionals, and partners from across the youth advocacy spectrum to announce an ambitious pilot program aimed at diverting juvenile offenders away from the criminal justice system and toward services that will improve their lives and their communities.

“Good morning. I’m Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley.  It’s my honor to be your host today as we act on one of the most pressing criminal justice issues of our time: the effective diversion of young offenders – outward, away from the system, instead of upward, and deeper into it.

“Toward that end, I’d like to introduce Dr. J. Keith Motley, Chancellor of UMass Boston; Dr. David Cash, Dean of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at UMass Boston; Major Edgar George of the Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center in Dorchester; Jumanne Kendrick, program director of the Action for Boston Community Development Changing Tracks Initiative; Nikki Flionis, executive director of MissionSAFE; Alan Klein, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps; and Jeff Butts, executive director of the Justice Resource Institute SMART Team.

“I’d also like to recognize a few dignitaries who have also played key roles in getting this program off the ground – perhaps most notably Daria Lyman, senior fellow at the Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development at UMass Boston.

“From the Juvenile Intervention Unit of my office are Assistant District Attorneys Mark Zanini and Michael V. Glennon and Juvenile Diversion Coordinator Nicole Robbins. And finally, someone who everyone in this program knows extremely well by now, a member of my executive team who’s made juvenile diversion a top priority within the office for more than a year now, Deputy Chief of Staff Catherine Rodriguez.

“Together we’re announcing an historic partnership between the Suffolk DA’s office and these partner agencies with two primary goals: First, reducing juvenile involvement in Suffolk County’s criminal justice system, and second, minimizing the social, academic, and employment consequences that can follow that involvement.

“It’s called the Juvenile Alternative Resolution pilot project, or the JAR. In a few minutes, after more than a year of interdisciplinary research and collaboration, the men and women to my left and right will sign a memorandum of understanding formalizing our commitment to the program.

“When we do, Suffolk County will be at the forefront of a state at the forefront of the country.

“Data released late last year shows that Massachusetts cut its overall crime rate by more than 26% over the past five years, a greater reduction than almost any other state in the nation. In Boston, violent crime has been trending downward for a decade, while some cities of similar size recorded homicide rates two, four, even six times higher than ours last year.

“We didn’t accomplish those results by being hard on crime and filling our jails and prisons. We did it by being smart on crime and using alternatives to traditional prosecution – informal diversion, problem-solving specialty courts, and collaboration with community partners outside law enforcement.

“As a result, Massachusetts has the second-lowest adult imprisonment rate in the country, behind only Maine – a rural state with 20% of our population and less than a tenth of our density. In fact, we’re closer to England, France, and Canada than we are to the US national average. For juveniles specifically, we’ve reduced committed sentences by almost 75% over a 10-year period.

“Massachusetts is leading the country. But in Boston and Suffolk County, we want to lead it further.  We want a young person’s first encounter with the criminal justice system to be the last.  We want to provide meaningful intervention when a young person commits, or is at risk of committing, a more serious offense.  We want to reduce the barriers to their future success in school and the workplace.  And we want to hear from victims, whose voices are all too often left out of debates on criminal justice reform.

“The Juvenile Alternative Resolution program is the most ambitious of its kind in Massachusetts. Our goal – as prosecutors and with our partner agencies – is to go beyond the informal diversion that takes place every day in juvenile courts across the state.

“We’ll continue to route juveniles accused of petty crimes directly away from prosecution, as we have for many years – certainly since I was a prosecutor back in the 1980s. But we’ll also take an individualized approach to diverting more serious young offenders in a way never before contemplated in the Commonwealth.

“Historically, juvenile diversion programs in Massachusetts have been geared toward first-time offenders, or limited in the type of services available to support post-diversion success. The JAR will accept a much greater range of cases and a much broader class of juveniles.  It will assess their specific backgrounds, identify their specific needs, and help them achieve specific goals – not just avoiding prosecution but having a net-positive effect on their lives, victims’ satisfaction, and the community as a whole.  It will be voluntary and culturally competent, it will come without a price tag to juveniles or their families, and it will operate entirely in the public and non-profit sectors.

“Under this new framework, juveniles will be screened for eligibility when they first appear in court. If they qualify for the program, we’ll quantify their risks and needs using empirically-validated assessment tools that have proven effective and reliable in other jurisdictions.

“The partners here will connect juvenile offenders with positive peer relationships, pro-social activities, and responsible adult mentorship, along with a broad array of collateral services.

“Some might need educational support; some might need substance abuse counseling. Some might benefit from mental health treatment, anger management, or job training programs.  Some will require a combination of all these resources and more.  Many young offenders just need a minor course-correction to get their lives back on track, and others may benefit from continued services after they’ve completed their diversionary requirements.  What’s most important is that we approach each case and each juvenile individually to provide the most appropriate level of service and supervision.

“I should be clear that certain cases will not be diverted. We’ll continue to prosecute sex offenses, gun crimes, and conduct that inflicts serious bodily harm in the Suffolk County Juvenile Court.  And as I mentioned earlier, truly petty crimes can usually be resolved early on.  On average, we informally divert about 25% of our juvenile cases, with the experience of an arrest and court appearance acting as its own deterrent to future misconduct, and we’ll continue that practice.

“The Juvenile Alternative Resolution program will focus on cases in the middle of the spectrum – the ones that can act as early warning signs that a young person needs intervention in his or her life. And the intervention we’ll offer through the JAR will bring the benefits of accountability without the long-term consequences of traditional prosecution.

“Victims will continue to have a voice in the process, and they’ll remain at the center of what we do. We’ll embrace the restorative justice model when it can provide them with meaningful resolutions.  Crime victims have a right to be heard, both individually in their specific cases and collectively when it comes to matters of public policy.  I’m deeply grateful to victims and survivors like Clarissa Turner, who’s with us today, for joining so many prosecutors, educators, service providers, and others to bring this project to fruition.

“I should also be clear that while we have great expectations for the project’s future, we’re still in its earliest stages. It’s a pilot program with a highly dedicated but limited number of community partners – meaning we’ll be limited in how many cases it can currently handle.  Its true success will depend on expanding those critical resources in the years to come.  So if you run a city, state, or non-profit youth service agency, we want to hear from you – and we want to work together.

“I know there’s a lot of concern and even fear right now about where the country is headed. But from its very first days, Boston has been a leader in the pursuit of justice, equality, and progress.  Now more than ever, we have to keep moving forward and carry the torch for others to follow.  We have to show that government – and especially law enforcement – are here to help people, not hurt them, and fix problems, not make them worse.

“When we first contemplated this program, we knew we’d be taking a chance on some cases and some defendants. But without taking risks, there are no rewards – and the potential rewards here are enormous.  Today, the benefit is to individual juveniles in their own isolated cases.  And tomorrow, the benefit will be to the families and communities of adults who got a helping hand in the right direction when it really mattered most.

“As District Attorney for 15 years, I’ve seen over and over again that what comes out of the criminal justice system is a direct reflection of what goes into it. Racial and ethnic disparities in education, employment, health care, even things as basic as public transportation, manifest themselves in our courts and correctional facilities.  For all the power vested in prosecutors, we can’t fix the inequities upstream that are replicated in our courtrooms downstream.

“But what we can do – what we will do today – is reach outside the courtroom to balance our goals of accountability, rehabilitation, and prevention. With our community partners, we can help young offenders right their wrongs, and we can do it without creating a record that, in some cases, does more harm than good.  Doing this work effectively means more than just dismissing cases.  It means showing young people that there are consequences for their actions.  It means supporting their education and preparing them for the workplace.  And it means surrounding them with positive peers, adults, and activities.

“In the months and years to come, we’ll be measuring recidivism rates, intervention outcomes, and every statistic we can to gauge this program’s success. But what can’t be measured is perhaps the most valuable outcome of all.  Because when a young man finds a mentor at a job training program instead of a street gang, or a young woman builds a social network through education instead of incarceration, the personal, social, and public policy benefits are greater than mere numbers can calculate.

“With that in mind, I’ll ask our signatories now to open the folders in front of them, take out the memoranda of understanding, note that I’ve pre-signed my name on each, and countersign on the line below.”

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