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Juvenile Justice Reform Is Legislator’s Goal

An Interview with Catherine Strode

Juvenile Justice Reform Is Legislator’s Goal
State Representative Pete Lee (House District 18) has been involved in efforts to impact the state’s juvenile justice system for the past 35 years both as a legislator and as a private citizen. Vice-Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, he has introduced bills supporting criminal justice systemic reform and ‘restorative justice’ programs.

Health Care Advocacy Program Policy Perspective
Juvenile Justice Reform Is Legislator’s Goal
State Representative Pete Lee (House District 18) has been involved in efforts to impact the state’s juvenile justice system for the past 35 years both as a legislator and as a private citizen. Vice-Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, he has introduced bills supporting criminal justice systemic reform and ‘restorative justice’ programs.
In an interview with Catherine Strode, Health Care Advocacy Program Consultant, Representative Lee discusses the initiatives he believes can be most effective in: rehabilitating juveniles, reducing juvenile recidivism rates, and keeping juveniles out of the adult criminal justice system.
Which one of the bills you sponsored this past session targeting juvenile justice reform are you most proud of?
“One of the bills that I felt most proud of was a bill to add social workers to the public defenders office. The bill (HB14-1023) provided for social workers to be on the public defenders team to represent juveniles. With the juveniles in the criminal justice system, a lot of those kids have more problems than just committing a violation of the law. They have alcohol or substance problems. They have social and mental health problems, and educational deficiencies. We really need to have a system that is equipped to deal with all of these problems. Social workers are in a position to assess what those underlying problems are and thus are in a position to help the defense council propose solutions which are more wholistic to address the problems that the juveniles are facing.”
You also supported legislation to seal criminal records. What is the goal?
“The goal of the bill is to seal juvenile records because the impact of having the criminal record can adversely affect a person’s ability to get a loan, to get a job, to get scholarships, to get into schools, to get into the military service, to get housing. The adverse consequences of a criminal record are devastating and the impact on the individual is devastating, often times for offenses that were committed years previously. I think statistically I had heard if an offender goes seven years without committing an offense, they are statistically unlikely to commit another offense as a person who has never committed an offense whatsoever. So to hold a person’s criminal record against them for a lifetime serves no useful societal purpose and has a negative, destructive impact on them.”
What do you think are some of the state’s successes in the area of criminal justice and juveniles?
“The goal is to keep kids out of the criminal justice system. The state probation department has an unswerving commitment to the youth of evidence-based practices, things that actually work to help kids change and rehabilitate. I think the trend toward evidence-based practices is significant. Emerging brain science has shown us that kids aren’t fully developed and don’t really understand the consequences of their actions. They are impulsive. Our criminal justice system, and by extension, the juvenile justice system is just beginning to take cognizance of that fact. I think the other significant one, in all modesty, is my initiative for restorative justice. I think restorative justice is a sea change in the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems because it’s a different way of looking at offenses and offenders by recognizing the responsibility of offenders to their victims and to society.”
How effective has legislation establishing ‘restorative justice’ been?
“Legislation was passed in 2011 to put restorative justice into the juvenile code, into the adult code, into the department of corrections, the department of youth corrections, and the schools. A bill was also passed to establish four pilot programs for pre file diversion of juveniles out of the criminal justice system into the restorative justice system officially as a default way of dealing with their offenses. The district attorney diverts kids before charges are filed against them into the restorative justice process. And only if they don’t succeed in that restorative justice process do they get sent back into the criminal justice system. We have had, historically, recidivism (re arrest) rates of 110 per cent under the normal punitive justice system. By using restorative justice, the juvenile recidivism rate is closer to 30 per cent, a huge drop in recidivism by using restorative justice.”
 

Catherine StrodeCatherine Strode is the Consultant to the Health Care Advocacy Program. She holds a Masters degree in Public Administration with an emphasis in Health Care Policy. Formerly the Coordinator of the Program, Catherine publishes the HCAP newsletter featuring interviews with state legislators and represents the Program at meetings and events which pertain to policy matters.