CJCJ: Detention Diversion Advocacy Project

For the first time I had someone looking out for me, not just watching over me.
-John, DDAP client

Begun in San Francisco in 1993, the Detention Diversion Advocacy Project (DDAP) targets the highest risk youth in the juvenile justice system and offers them intensive case management and a comprehensive range of community services. Whereas many programs target first time offenders, CJCJ recognizes that 70% of first time offenders never offend again, and therefore considers it more effective to concentrate funding and rehabilitation services on repeat offenders, who generally have more complicated needs, and are consequently more difficult to serve.

Congratulations to the Robert F. Kennedy Children's Action Corps in Dorchester, Massachusetts for its recent recognition by the state of Massachusetts. On July 20, 2006, the RFK Corps received a Meritorious Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety for its Detention Diversion Advocacy Program. The awards recognize innovative public safety programs that break with tradition but share the goal of helping to save lives and fight crime.

Dorchester is one of four counties nationwide to have replicated DDAP, a model for case advocacy originally implemented by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco.

Clients are referred to DDAP by defense attorneys, courts, parents, or community-based service providers. DDAP case workers meet with potential clients and, after an initial screening process, they develop case plans to present to the court. The case plan describes the specific conditions and outcomes the youth promises to fulfill in exchange for / or upon release from custody. In 80% of cases, the youth is released to CJCJ's custody.

From that point on, DDAP employs an intensive case management strategy to carry out the designated case plan. While probation officers often have case loads of more than 70 youth, DDAP case loads are never higher than 12. Case workers connect their clients to an individualized range of community-based services that are selected to address the reasons they may have resorted to delinquency in the first place. Unlike the punitive environment that often surrounds a youth once they have been arrested, DDAP uses a positive and supportive, while aggressive, case management approach to ensure that the youth take advantage of the services available to them.

Case workers use face to face visits, rare for probation officers, anywhere from three times weekly (in the second and third months) to three times daily (in the first week after referral). They act as role models and mentors, providing stable and encouraging support structures for their clients, many of whom have no one else to rely on.

This intensive advocacy and case management model is well-suited for high risk or repeat offenders with special needs, because case managers can tailor a highly individualized plan that is responsive to the youth's needs, progress, and specific interests.

In 1999, Randall G Shelden, PhD., a professor of criminal justice at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas conducted an extensive evaluation of the Detention Diversion Advocacy Program. This groundbreaking report points the way for Detention Diversion to be examined as a true alternative agency to the formal juvenile justice system. Since first printing of this report, the DDAP program has been recognized by the OJJDP as a national model for working with at-risk youth in the juvenile justice system.

Detention Diversion Advocacy: An Evaluation
OJJDP September 1999 [View the PDF]

Detention Diversion Advocacy Program Philadelphia: Evaluation Findings
CEMM August 2002 [View the PDF]

DDAP San Francisco
Since 1993, DDAP has served over 1500 youth in San Francisco. According to a UNLV study, DDAP participants were 26% less like to recidivate compared to detained youth. DDAP has received numerous awards, including the "Agency of the Year Award" from the Delinquency Prevention Committee, and the "Diversity Award" from the Center on Human Development for its pioneering efforts to deliver culturally relevant advocacy and case management services.

CJCJ succeeds in reducing the population of youths awaiting placement in San Francisco Juvenile Hall through the New Options Initiative. A pioneering partnership with the Public Defender's Office makes it possible. This program is part of reform efforts sponsored by Anne E. Casey Foundation. Read an Overview of the New Options Initiative: [View the PDF]

[Kimo Uila, Program Director]
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
54 Dore Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Tel: (415) 621-5661 x375
Fax: (415) 621-5466

Pathways to Change-Oakland
Pathways to Change, the most recent DDAP program, started in the Spring of 2002, partners with other community-based organization to service youthful repeat offenders in the City of Oakland.

Pathways to Change is a project of Safe Passages, itself a collaborative of city and county officials, community-based organizations and community members organized to create programming for Oakland youth. Safe Passages is supported by the East Bay Community Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

As a new program to the area, Pathways to Change has established partnerships with agencies in the community that have a history of supporting young people. The Pathways to Change case managers come from six partnering agencies, many of which have decades of experience providing services in Oakland. These partnerships include organizations based in different neighborhoods and specializing in issues ranging from individual and family counseling, job training, youth violence issues, substance abuse treatment, as well as services specific to different race and ethnic groups that are represented in Oakland.

Since the inception of Pathways to Change-Oakland, it has been successfully transitioned to [The Mentoring Center]

John L. is a 17-year-old African-American youth who resides in a San Francisco housing Development. He has over 15 contacts with the juvenile justice system and his mother is a substance abuser. Prior to his referral, John did not attend school for a year. He was referred to DDAP after being involved in a shooting incident with five other youths. John was assigned a case manager who designed a specific service plan for his supervised release from juvenile hall. The plan required John to enroll in a community college GED program, attend peer support meetings, participate in tutorial assistance program and abide by a 6:00 pm curfew.

After developing a relationship, the case manager learned that John had a desire to write about his experiences of growing up "black and poor". After six moths under DDAP case management supervision John received his GED. His case manager found him a job at a local law firm and as a feature writer for YO! Youth Outlook Magazine. John said that for the first time "I had someone looking out for me, not just watching over me."