The RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice (RFKNRCJJ) has used a proven framework to partner with state and local jurisdictions to conduct multiple probation and youth justice system reviews designed to improve outcomes for youth and families at-risk or involved in the juvenile justice systems for more than fifteen years. RFK’s successful technical assistance partnerships have produced an impressive array of positive innovations and reforms to the policies and operations that impact youth outcomes and increase community safety.
The RFK National Resource Center is applying these positive experiences and lessons learned in the Probation and Youth Justice System Project in Clark County, Washington; San Diego County, California; and the tri-county District 25 in the state of North Carolina. The project will produce replicable methods, approaches and operations for probation, courts, and the broader youth justice system.
The RFK National Resource Center has produced other resources and guides that permit youth justice system reviews to be successfully replicated nationwide.
RFK will be hosting a 2025 Transformation of Youth Justice National Symposium in San Diego, California on June 18-20, 2025, designed for multi-disciplinary professionals and youth-serving stakeholders committed to advancing youth justice transformation.
May 1, 2024
Judges in family courts handle the complex dynamics of familial conflicts, particularly in cases involving high parental conflict. Parenting education is essential, serving as a vital tool to ensure children’s well-being during parental separations and promote smoother family transitions. “The Families in Transition (FIT) Parenting Course,” a 1.5-hour online program designed to complement existing parenting …
April 1, 2024
The Good Neighbor Emergency Assistance (GNEA) and the Iowa Judicial Branch have partnered to support The Housing Navigator Program. The Navigator at GNEA assists their clients in finding sustainable forms of housing assistance in Story County, Iowa, with the aim of preventing homelessness. They work with clients holistically to determine which programs offered by the …
March 1, 2024
The Judicial Innovation Fellowship (JIF) is an initiative incubated at the Justice Lab at Georgetown Law Center’s Institute for Technology Law and Policy. The JIF is a year-long fellowship for technologists, designers, and user testers to transform justice across state, local, territorial, and tribal courts. It is an exciting new opportunity for technologists, product people, and designers …
February 1, 2024
Pretrial policies have undergone significant change and advancement over the last decade. In 2013, the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) endorsed the COSCA Policy Paper on Evidence-Based Pretrial Release. CCJ and COSCA also hosted five Pretrial Regional Summits between May 2016 and November 2018 to facilitate the …
January 1, 2024
Most states do not have specialized family court judges, let alone judges dedicated to delinquency cases. Even in states that do have a family court structure, juvenile justice often gets short shrift compared to child welfare in terms of court attention, resources, and improvement efforts. In addition, most states do not provide juvenile court judges …
December 1, 2023
The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) is applying the technical and business definitions of the National Open Data Standards (NODS) to resolve enduring, and common, obstacles to collecting good civil and family court data. Developed by the Conference of State Court Administrators and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), NODS is intended to …