Juvenile Justice Success Stories in Alaska
A small Southeast Alaska community had experienced a series of home and business burglaries during the early months of 2007, causing widespread concerns among the local residents. The subsequent police investigation revealed that a juvenile, P.W. (initials changed to protect privacy), was responsible for the crimes and Juvenile Justice was called upon to both provide a service plan that would assist the youth and prevent future crimes in the community.
One option commonly exercised in the past had been to first provide treatment and counseling services in Juneau at the Johnson Youth Center, and then transition youth back to their home communities. Plans along these lines had been attempted with P.W., but they had met with limited success causing everyone to sit down and discuss all options.
The willingness of the community to offer supervision and counseling services for P.W. allowed the division to take a completely new approach to his case management through a series of meetings bringing together the family, members of the community, and Juvenile Justice staff.
The meetings established a plan of shared supervisory responsibilities within the community, a schedule of formal counseling services provided by Juvenile Justice and the over-all flexibility to provide these services within the city limits during the probationary period.
This unique plan has been in place for more than six months, and there have been no additional probation violations or formal charges filed against P.W. The ongoing success of the wraparound services approach has allowed P.W. to remain at home while receiving services.