The time has come to reform juvenile justice in Tennessee

Beth Harwell and Mark Norris | Opinion
  • The state is not tracking disparities, or the effectiveness of our juvenile system’s efforts.
  • Beth Harwell is speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives.
  • Mark Norris is majority leader of the Tennessee Senate.

Over the past decade, legislators and other officials from a growing number of states have set aside political differences to unite behind a common goal: steering youth away from delinquency toward a productive life path.

The overriding mission of the juvenile justice system is to rehabilitate youths, but prison-like environments actually increase the likelihood of re-offending.

Their teamwork is paying off. Georgia, Kansas, South Dakota, Utah and Kentucky are among states where juvenile justice reforms are producing better outcomes for youth, while protecting public safety and saving taxpayer dollars.

Now, Tennessee is poised to walk down a similar collaborative path. The Joint Ad-Hoc Tennessee Blue Ribbon Task Force on Juvenile Justice released a report that will help guide our state’s leaders to enact improvements to reduce crime, hold youth accountable and guide them toward a positive future as productive Tennesseans.

Tennessee has made progress in reducing both juvenile crime and the number of youth committed to secure facilities, but we’ve got a long way to go. Given the drop in crime we are seeing, you would expect to see a similar reduction in the overall size of the juvenile-justice system, but this is not so. Instead of reflecting the drop in crime, our system is cycling more youth through out-of-home placements – and holding them away from their families longer than before.

Many youth are placed out of home for lower-level offenses like truancy and other status offenses that would not be crimes if committed by adults. This is disturbing, especially because research shows that out-of-home placements do not improve outcomes for most children, and may actually make them more likely to reoffend, in addition to being much more expensive to taxpayers.

Tennessee’s system also is plagued by pervasive inequities – often described as “justice by geography." Some counties have programs to divert youth away from court and into community-based services, while some do not.

Some counties use professional assessments to evaluate a youth’s needs and risk to public safety, while others do not. And racial and gender disparities are prevalent at all points in the system.  Where a child lives and what that child looks like should not determine his or her treatment or opportunities under the law.

Our state prides itself on good, efficient government, but alarmingly, we are not tracking these disparities, or the effectiveness of our juvenile system’s efforts overall. We do not know, for instance, whether the money we are spending is effectively rehabilitating children and dissuading them from committing future crimes. Tracking this information is one of the changes suggested in our report.

House Speaker Beth Harwell

Like other states that have traveled this path, Tennessee began by conducting an exhaustive review of our juvenile justice system to understand trends and identify shortcomings. The Task Force held extensive conversations with youth, families, and professionals in the trenches, asking them what’s working and what needs to change.

As part of this effort, we reviewed successful programs and policies in other states. And we took a hard look at what the latest research says about juvenile offending and strategies that reduce recidivism.

While change can be challenging, clinging to an ineffective status quo that is producing disappointing outcomes is irresponsible.

Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris

That’s why we’re convinced juvenile justice reform is the right answer for Tennessee, and a vital step toward creating brighter futures for our state’s children and families.

Effective juvenile justice heads off a host of potential negative outcomes down the road, like substance abuse and criminal activity, while encouraging education and developing our workforce, so that all Tennesseans move toward a productive future.

Now that we have released the report, our colleagues in the legislature will weigh in. This will be a multi-year effort, and we will just be taking a first bite of the apple this year. But we trust that they will see these reforms the same way that we do – vital to our state’s future.

Beth Harwell is speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Mark Norris is majority leader of the Tennessee Senate.