Loose Coupling in New York City: Connecting State Level Criminal History Records and City Level Youth Justice Agencies to Assess Post Program Criminal Justice Contact.

• In Event: Innovations in Youth Services

Abstract

Youth justice agencies often lose contact with their clients after they exit the program. This makes it difficult to know who did or did not succeed without relying on informal sources such as other clients or case workers in different programs. Without official records it is difficult to determine what happened to clients who participated in programming, but accessing official records can be costly for City agences and time consuming for State organizations. The Research and Evaluation Center (REC) at John Jay College of Criminal Justice has collaborated with the New York Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) to conduct follow-up studies on justice-involved youth participating in community-based programs in New York City. Organizations affiliated with the REC’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program submitted names of prior clients and REC Fellows conducted criminal history searches using DCJS records. Analysis of subsequent criminal justice contact for a number of programs identify what happened to some justice involved youth in New York City, and comparisons between and within agencies provide useful information about programming. Findings demonstrate how collaborations such as this aid in connecting city agencies with state level records to provide reliable information

Authors

• Cassandra Ramdath, John Jay College of Criminal Justice / CUNY Graduate Center

• Michelle Cubellis, John Jay College of Criminal Justice / CUNY Graduate Center

• Michael Maxfield, John Jay College of Criminal Justice