I am writing to express my alarm and dismay about the Length of Stay (LOS) guidelines proposed by the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice (VA DJJ) that were published for public comment on December 5, 2022. I am writing this public comment in my personal capacity and not on behalf of Race Forward or any other organizational entity.
For over ten years, I have worked in and with youth and adult justice systems across the country with a focus on addressing living and working conditions in prisons and jails and advancing racial equity. I came to this work after my own experience with the justice system in Virginia as a 19 year old. The inhumane conditions left me awestruck. Additionally, being a white woman in a jail where the majority of incarcerated people are Black and Brown stayed with me and drove my commitment to racial justice. Following this experience, I received my Masters in Social Work from New York University and began my professional career in youth justice reform. My experience includes working in the Alternative to Placement Assessment unit at the NYC Department of Probation; at the Juvenile Justice Strategy Group in the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF); the Vera Institute of Justice as the Co-Founder and Project Director of the Restoring Promise Initiative [working with adult state prisons across the country to improve living conditions for incarcerated young people, and working conditions for frontline staff]; as Assistant Commissioner at the NYC Department of Corrections at Rikers Island Jail Complex; and today I work as the Director of Root Solutions to Public Safety at the national non-profit Race Forward.
While working at AECF, I was part of the team that partnered with VA DJJ on their transformation process. In this role, I worked on the system assessment in 2014, supported the research and data analysis that informed the new Length of Stay policy, and supported implementation of the new policies inside the facilities bringing VA DJJ into alignment with national research and best practices.
I remember the first time I visited a VA DJJ youth prison. Standing in the solitary confinement unit [at the time called the IBRU – Intensive Behavior Redirection Unit], listening to the sounds of screaming teenagers suffering the effects of sensory deprivation, I was thrust into the kind of dehumanizing climate that would become all too familiar to me in my later work in adult prisons. Every corrections agency I have worked with is susceptible to the same dangerous recipe – large and overcrowded facilities with high staff to youth ratios resulting in higher rates of violence, uses of force, lower program participation, less family contact, and worse public safety outcomes in the long term. The Bon Air IBRU embodied this tragic reality and continues to haunt me.
Every ingredient in that toxic recipe is intensified the longer a young person is kept in custody and away from their community. DJJ is now poised to walk away from a 2015 LOS policy that mitigated those harms and turn instead to a new policy that will worsen them. Here are three implications of this shift that, based on my experience, should give DJJ pause:
The history of VA DJJ should be warning enough to this end. I remember learning about the young person who committed suicide during Director Andy Block’s tenure and the grief that rippled throughout the agency. The moment was met with an urgent commitment to wholly transform the department recognizing the harm the current conditions were causing to young people, families, and communities, particularly youth and families of color. This commitment was anchored in an acknowledgement that healing happens in the context of community – not in the geographically and socially isolating context of a prison [youth or adult] – and in fact, the geographic and social isolation of Beaumont and Bon Air were undermining the departments commitment to safety and wellness of youth and staff.
Shorter lengths of stay also contributed to increases in family engagement at DJJ since 2015. We know from national best practices – and Virginia’s data based on the Transformation Update Reports – that increased family engagement has a direct relationship with increased safety inside facilities across all safety metrics [assaults, contraband, uses of force, etc]. In addition, increased family engagement increases the likelihood that a young person will be successful when they return home including reduced recidivism, and higher rates of engagement in school, programs, and pro-social activities. Reducing the LOS and in turn reducing the number of youth incarcerated set the stage to be able to have meaningful family engagement and disrupt the cycle of family separation by the state both of which would be compromised if the proposed LOS policy is put in place.
There is a striking lack of supporting evidence as VA DJJ has yet to publish an impact assessment, a racial equity impact analysis, or present a data or research driven rationale. For example, based on VA DJJ’s data Black youth are not only more likely to be committed to DJJ at disproportionally high rates, they also stay in DJJ custody longer compared to their white counterparts. Under the proposed LOS policy, 90% of indeterminately committed youth would now have an early release of nine months or more. DJJ should take great care in conducting a racial equity impact analysis to ensure that an old pattern does not re-surface or worsen where Black and Brown youth languish in prison as a result of systemic racism.
The team involved in the 2015 LOS policy change took great care to ensure the proposal was grounded in the latest research and was vetted through an impact assessment in order to have an informed calculus for how to prepare the system including the frontline staff charged with bringing the new policy into practice. It should be of grave concern to the DJJ Board and to the public that no impact assessment has been presented. This lack of planning and intention is both a concern for public safety reasons as noted above, and from a fiscal responsibility standpoint.
I have worked in a wide range of settings, jurisdictions, and agencies in my career. I was proud of the work accomplished by VA DJJ, especially the hard work done by the frontline staff to bring the policy changes to life on the ground inside the institutions themselves. This work brought Virginia DJJ to the national stage and in the company of some of the most innovative leaders while ushering in the next generation of youth justice reform. I – and many others - have pointed to VA DJJ as a shining example of what’s possible when you commit to bring a system into alignment with a set of values such as data and research driven decision making, restorative justice, and centering the dignity of the people who live and work in its facilities. This proposed LOS policy is a betrayal of those values that Virginia’s have held, setting the agency – and youth justice reform – back, and casting a shadow of shame across the state.
Violence is an important issue that we must confront as a society. Like many others, I have dedicated my career to advancing innovative solutions to meaningfully address violence in a way that truly centers the expertise of the person/ people most harmed by violence. I have learned that reparative/ restorative justice efforts that invest in the community and seek to repair harm are far more impactful and effective than stays in correctional facilities, and that any time a child is removed from their community there is a ripple effect extending far beyond what those in positions of power are often able to feel. The cumulative impact of our collective failure to appropriately address and repair harm from violence is serious. The proposed LOS policy falls in line with the decades and centuries old “tough on crime” approach that has failed to improve public safety, and caused serious harm to young people, families, and communities of color.
Now, more than ever, we need youth justice leaders to be bold by re-committing to proven policies that have supported our collective public safety and racial justice goals. My hope in writing this public comment is to reinforce the importance of Virginia leaders to recommit to the Virginia of the future: Where research and data drive decision making; where racial equity and inclusion are centered; and where justice and human dignity are reflected in policy and practice.