JJI welcomes two new team members!

The JJI is thrilled to welcome two new team members!

In August, Michele Lueders joined our staff as the new Program Specialist. Michele will be working closely on the Evidence-based Nebraska project providing support to the community-based juvenile justice programs all across Nebraska receiving funding under CBA/JS. Prior to joining our team, Michele has worked in a variety of roles within Nebraska advocating for young people and their families for nearly 25 years!

Also in August, our new graduate student, Sadie Brewer, started her PhD program in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at UNO and joined our team! Sadie is working on a few different projects through JJI, but has a particular interest and passion for JJI’s mentoring program.

We are incredibly grateful to have these two incredible individuals join our team as we continue to improve and expand our impact in Nebraska and nationally. The experience and insights both Michele and Sadie bring to the JJI continue to help us better serve the programs we work with and develop new and improved research. Please join us in giving a warm welcome to Sadie and Michele!

Evidence-based Nebraska FY 24-25 Evaluation Strategy

It’s that time of year again! The JJI is getting prepared for fiscal year 2024-2025 evaluations for Community-based Juvenile Services Aid funded programs for Evidence-based Nebraska. We are repeating a similar process to last year’s individual program reports, with a few improvements!

This memo provides an overview of our evaluation plan for this year, what program’s should expect moving forward, and what we need from you. The important date to keep in mind right now is OCTOBER 15, 2024. This is when all data must be completely entered into the Juvenile Case Management System (JCMS) in order to be included in evaluation.

Evidence-based Nebraska FY 23-24 Evaluation Strategy and Information

We are excited to begin another fiscal year of program evaluation in the Evidence-based Nebraska (EB-NE) program. We continue to grow and evolve the strategies for evaluation in collaboration with the Nebraska Crime Commission.

The information in this document will provide a comprehensive overview of the evaluation strategy for this year and important dates and activities that will help your program and the collective Community Based Aid program achieve meaningful evaluation results.

Report Release: Annual Report 2020-2021 Juvenile Case Management System Definitions and Data Fidelity Project

The Juvenile Justice Institute is happy to announce that our latest report on our Juvenile Case Management System Definitions and Data Fidelity Project (JDDF Project) was released in June 2021.

This fiscal year, we conducted the JDDF Project which we discuss in more detail in this report. In addition to reporting on what we learned through the JDDF Project, we provide some insight into why programs may have received the results they did, and suggestions for improving data entry. We also looked at the missing data reports that programs received in FY 2018/2019 to see if data entry rates of required variables have improved.

You can read the report here. If you would like to see all of our previous publications, check out our Reports page.

Report Release: School Interventionists FY 2015-2020

The Juvenile Justice Institute is happy to announce that our latest report on school interventionist programs, was released in May 2021.

Interventionists identify and coordinate behavioral or academic intervention for a student to address attendance issues, poor grades, lack of engagement, and/or behavior issues. For this report, the JJI interviewed the currently funded interventionists, examined what youth are being referred to interventionists for, and the outcomes for these youth in both school and the juvenile justice system.

You can read the report here. If you would like to see all of our previous publications, check out our Reports page.

Report Release: Restorative Justice Conferencing Programs FY 2015-2020

The Juvenile Justice Institute is happy to announce that our latest report on restorative justice conferencing programs, also known as mediation centers, has been released today.

Restorative justice conferencing programs aim to increase community engagement, reduce recidivism, prevent youth from moving deeper into the juvenile justice system, and produce greater community and/or victim satisfaction. The report also discusses how restorative justice programs work, and how factors like race/ethnicity, gender, and age affect aspects of these programs and youth outcomes.

You can read the report here. If you would like to see all of our previous publications, check out our Reports page.

NIJ Evaluation: Increasing College Enrollment

The National Institute of Justice has released its latest evaluation, this time focusing on an intervention meant to help low-income, first-generation high-school students enroll in college.

The intervention, known as Bottom Line, targets students with GPAs of at least 2.5 and whose families have an income below 200% of the federal poverty limit. The targeted students would also be the first members of their family to attend college.

Bottom Line connects these students with advisors and holds meetings with them regularly, for up to six years as the student prepares for and attends college.

Multiple evaluations of the program indicated that target students were more likely to enroll in college, and remain in attendance. In general, students enrolled in the program seemed to be more likely to attend a four-year college than a two-year one.

To read more about the program, visit the NIJ’s site here.

NIJ Evaluation: Wraparound Programs

The National Institute of Justice has released a report examining “wraparound” programs aimed at lowering juvenile delinquency. The methods used by wraparound programs involve surrounding at-risk youth with coordinated sources, including school staff, courts, law enforcement, and services. By providing support through these methods, the hope is that the youth will be less likely to commit offenses, while also making schools and communities safer for other students.

However, in practice, the NIJ found that wraparound programs—even well-designed ones—did not accomplish the goal of reducing delinquency. Results were inconsistent, and the evaluation determined that it was neither harmful nor beneficial in the pilot program(s) in terms of schoolwide effects.

Additionally, researchers struggled to implement the program in schools while coordinating with other entities of the law. The program performed better when there was greater buy-in from principals and staff in the schools. Staffing also was identified as an issue in the evaluation.

To read more about the NIJ’s wraparound program evaluation, you can visit their site here.

NIJ Publication: Effects of SROs in Schools

The National Institute of Justice has released an article, published in Criminology & Public Policy, detailing the effects of school resource officers on school crime and responses to school crime. This study in this article, funded by a grant from the NIJ, examined schools that increased their spending on SROs.

You can read the article online at the Wiley Online Library at this link.

In the study linked above, evidence was found that SROs do not necessarily make schools safer, and generally end up increasing the criminalization of school discipline.

The presence of school resource officers in the classroom is a controversial topic. In Lincoln, the school board debated whether or not to continue its $500,000 contract with the Lincoln Police Department to have SROs in the schools. Members of the community and the school board said that the money would be spent better elsewhere, such as on social workers, counselors, school psychologists, and so on. The school board ultimately decided to keep the contract with LPD.

NIJ Evaluation: Group Mentoring

The National Institute of Justice has released a report on the effectiveness on Project Arrive, an intervention that focuses on youth who are at risk of dropping out of school. This intervention uses group mentoring as a model, which consists of a group of six to eight students meeting with two volunteer co-mentors.

The NIJ used two separate studies that looked at whether or not the intervention had an effect on youth. For the most part, these studies found that Project Arrive has no significant effect on the following aspects: juvenile offenses, home support, self-awareness, instructional time, and GPA.

To read the full profile of the Project Arrive program, you can visit the NIJ’s website here.