[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EXAMINING WAYS TO IMPROVE THE JUVENILE
JUSTICE SYSTEM AND SUPPORT AMERICA'S
YOUNG PEOPLE
=======================================================================
HEARING
Before The
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CIVIL RIGHTS AND HUMAN SERVICES
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, MAY 17, 2022
__________
Serial No. 117-45
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via: edworkforce.house.gov or www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
57-090 PDF WASHINGTON : 2025
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT, Virginia, Chairman
RAUL M. GRIJALVA, Arizona VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina,
JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut Ranking Member
GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN, JOE WILSON, South Carolina
Northern Marina Islands GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania
FREDERICA WILSON, Florida TIM WALBERG, Michigan
SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon GLENN GROTHMAN, Wisconsin
MARK TAKANO, California ELISE M. STEFANIK, New York
ALMA S. ADAMS, North Carolina RICK W. ALLEN, Georgia
MARK DeSAULNIER, California JIM BANKS, Indiana
DONALD NORCROSS, New Jersey JAMES COMER, Kentucky
PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington RUSS FULCHER, Idaho
JOSEPH D. MORELLE, New York FRED KELLER, Pennsylvania
SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania MARIANNETTE MILLER-MEEKS, Iowa
LUCY McBATH, Georgia BURGESS OWENS, Utah
JAHANA HAYES, Connecticut BOB GOOD, Virginia
ANDY LEVIN, Michigan, Vice Chairman LISA McCLAIN, Michigan
ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota DIANA HARSHBARGER, Tennessee
HALEY M. STEVENS, Michigan MARY MILLER, Illinios
TERESA LEGER FERNANDEZ, New Mexico VICTORIA SPARTZ, Indiana
MONDAIRE JONES, New York SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin
KATHY MANNING, North Carolina MADISON CAWTHORN, North Carolina
FRANK J. MRVAN, Indiana MICHELLE STEEL, California
JAMAAL BOWMAN, New York CHRIS JACOBS, New York
SHEILA CHERFILUS-McCORMICK, Florida VACANCY
MARK POCAN, Wisconsin VACANCY
JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
MIKIE SHERRILL, New Jersey
ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
Veronique Pluviose, Staff Director
Cyrus Artz, Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CIVIL RIGHTS AND HUMAN SERVICES
SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon, Chairwoman
ALMA ADAMS, North Carolina RUSS FULCHER, Idaho,
JAHANA HAYES, Connecticut Ranking Member
TERESA LEGER FERNANDEZ, New Mexico GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania
FRANK J. MRVAN, Indiana LISA McCLAIN, Michigan
JAMAAL BOWMAN, New York VICTORIA SPARTZ, Indiana
KWEISI MFUME, Maryland SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisonsin
ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT, Virginia VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina (Ex
(Ex Officio) Officio)
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on May 17, 2022..................................... 1
OPENING STATEMENTS
Bonamici, Hon. Suzanne, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Civil
Rights and Human Services.................................. 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 4
Fulcher, Hon. Russ, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Civil
Rights and Human Services.................................. 5
Prepared statement of.................................... 6
WITNESSES
Burton, Lisette, Chief Policy and Practice Advisor,
Association of Children's Residential and Community
Services (ACRC)............................................ 8
Prepared statement of.................................... 11
Davis, Hasan A., Founder and Director, Hasan Davis Solutions
L.L.C...................................................... 19
Prepared statement of.................................... 21
Loux, Alan, President and CEO, Rawhide Youth Services........ 27
Prepared statement of.................................... 29
Kolivoski, Karen, Associate Professor, Howard University
School of Social Work...................................... 31
Prepared statement of.................................... 34
ADDITIONAL SUBMISSIONS
Chairwoman Bonamici:
Arts Education for All Act............................... 60
Report dated April 2020, from the Education Commission of
the States............................................. 61
QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD
Responses to questions submitted for the record by:
Ms. Lisette Burton....................................... 75
EXAMINING WAYS TO IMPROVE THE
JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM AND SUPPORT
AMERICA'S YOUNG PEOPLE
----------
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services,
Committee on Education and Labor,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:05 a.m., at
1275 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Suzanne Bonamici
(Chairwoman of the Subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Bonamici, Leger Fernandez, Bowman,
Scott (Ex Officio), Fulcher, Thompson, McClain, Fitzgerald, and
Foxx (Ex Officio).
Staff present: Britany Alston, Staff Assistant; Rashage
Green, Director of Education Policy; Christian Haines, General
Counsel; Rasheedah Hasan, Chief Clark; Sheila Havenner,
Director of Information Technology; Danyelle Honore, Fellow;
Emily Hopkins, Fellow; Stephanie Lalle, Communications
Director; Andre Lindsay, Policy Associate; Kota Mizutani,
Deputy Communication Director; Max Moore, Policy Associate;
Casey Peeks, Professional staff; Kayla Pennebecker, Staff
Assistant; Veronique Pluviose, Staff Director; Banyon Vassar,
Deputy Director of Information Technology; Sam Varie, Press
Secretary; ArRone Washington, Clerk and Special Assistant to
the Staff Director; Cyrus Artz, Minority Staff Director;
Gabriel Bisson, Minority Staff Assistant; Mini Ganesh, Minority
Staff Assistant; Amy Raaf Jones, Minority Director of Education
and Human Resources Policy; Hannah Matesic, Minority Director
of Operations; Audra McGeorge, Minority Communications
Director; and Mandy Schaumburg, Minority Chief Counsel and
Deputy Director of Education Policy.
Chairwoman Bonamici. Good morning. We will countdown from
five and then we will start. Five, four, three, two, one. The
Subcommittee on Human Rights and Human Services will come to
order. Welcome everyone. I note that a quorum is present.
I note for the subcommittee that Mr. Neguse of Colorado is
permitted to participate in today's hearing with the
understanding that his questions will come only after all
members of the subcommittee on both sides of the aisle who are
present had an opportunity to question the witnesses.
The subcommittee is meeting today to hear testimony on
examining ways to improve the juvenile justice system and to
support America's young people. This is a hybrid hearing,
excuse me, pursuant to House Resolution 8 and the regulations
thereto. All microphones, both in the room and on the platform,
will be kept muted as a general rule to avoid unnecessary
background noise.
Members and witnesses will be responsible for unmuting
themselves when they are recognized to speak or when they wish
to seek recognition. When members wish to speak or seek
recognition, they should unmute themselves and allow for a
pause of 2 seconds to ensure the microphone picks up their
speech.
I also ask that members please identify themselves before
they speak. Members who are participating in person should not
be logged onto the remote platform to avoid feedback, echoes
and distortion. Members participating remotely shall be
considered present in the proceeding when they are visible on
camera, and they shall be considered not present when they are
not visible on camera. The only exception to this is if they
are experiencing technical difficulty and inform committee
staff of such difficulty.
If any member experiences technical difficulty during the
hearing, you should stay connected on the platform, make sure
you are muted, and use your phone to immediately call the
committee's IT director whose number was provided in advance.
Should the Chair step away for any reason, another majority
member is hereby authorized to assume the gavel in the Chair's
absence.
In order to ensure that the committee's 5-minute rule is
adhered to, excuse me, staff will be keeping track of time
using the committee's digital timer on the remote platform. For
members participating in person, a timer will be broadcast in
the committee room on the television monitor as part of the
platform gallery view, and visible in its own thumbnail window.
The committee room timer will not be in use.
For members participating remotely, this will be visible in
gallery view in its own thumbnail window on the remote
platform. Members are asked to wrap up promptly when their time
has expired.
Finally, while the recent guidance of the Office of
Attending Physician has made mask wearing optional at this
time, please note that we have in our midst, both at the member
and staff levels, individuals who are immunocompromised and/or
who have immediate family members who are immunocompromised as
well, as who are not vaccinated either due to medical reasons,
or because the vaccine is not yet available to children under
the age of five. Therefore, the committee strongly recommends
that masks continue to be worn out of concern for the safety of
the unvaccinated and immunocompromised committee members and
staff, and their families.
Pursuant to committee rule 8(c), opening statements are
limited to the chair and the ranking member. This allows us to
hear from our witnesses sooner and provides all members with
adequate time to ask questions. I now recognize myself for the
purpose of making an opening statement.
Today's hearing will focus on how we can improve the
juvenile justice system and better support America's young
people. This is a particularly relevant topic as we commemorate
the 68th anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown
vs. Board of Education. Despite the initial progress we have
made following this historic decision, our public schools are
more segregated by race and class today than at any time since
the 1960's.
We know racially isolated and under resourced schools
contribute to the school to prison pipeline and harm student's
academic and social development. Children flourish when they
have consistent nurturing adults in their lives. When these
supports are not available, children are more likely to become
delinquent, and at risk of being removed from their home or
family.
Today tens of thousands of children are in out of home
placements, both in juvenile detention facilities and
congregate care facilities. Tragically, many of these
facilities have often been found to increase exposure to
trauma, and negatively affect children's education all in the
name of treatment. The use of congregate care facilities
instead of investing in a humane child welfare system, can have
dire consequences.
My home State of Oregon has shifted away from, and
overhauled accountability for, the congregate care system.
Largely thanks to the advocacy of my friend and former
colleague from the Oregon legislature, Oregon State Senator
Sara Gelser Blouin. Last year I met with Senator Blouin and a
survivor of the congregate care system, Uvea Spezza-Lopin.
She had been sent to a facility out of State, and regularly
sedated, restrained, and locked in a seclusion room. Uvea
showed great courage by sharing her story and standing up
against abuse in the system. I also met with advocates in my
office just last week who also spoke out about unfair and
abusive treatment.
We must follow their inspiration and advocacy and act to
improve these systems. In addition to the steep challenges of
congregate care facilities, the juvenile justice system is
still falling short of its intended purpose. To focus on the
best interests of children by rehabilitating and reintegrating,
rather than punishing them.
An under resourced juvenile justice system, coupled with
zero tolerance policies and increased policing in schools, has
led to a system that disproportionately policies the lives of
black and brown boys and girls offering no meaningful
intervention, and eventually feeding into the adult criminal
justice system. In other words, the juvenile justice system has
become a core contributor to the school to prison pipeline.
The Federal Government has an important role to play here.
In 1974 Congress passed the Juvenile Justice Delinquency and
Prevention Act, which implemented three core components. First,
it established core protections that states must follow to
protect children in the juvenile justice system.
Second, it authorized formula grants to help states run
their juvenile justice systems, and finally, it created the
justice department's Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency
Prevention, or the OJJDP, to oversee juvenile justice programs.
In 2018, Congress updated this law, to strengthen the core
protections for children under JJDPA and focused on addressing
racial disparities in the juvenile justice system.
Although this reauthorization was the result of bipartisan
efforts to align juvenile justice systems with evidence-based
policies, many states have experienced challenges implementing
the law. For example, the Trump administration did not provide
adequate implementation guidance to states, even though many
states were noncompliant with their responsibilities under
JJDPA.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also proposed enormous challenges
for states to implement the requirements and monitor State
juvenile justice facilities. As we continue to recover, we hope
to work with states and the OJJDP to provide the guidance
necessary, and help states meet children's needs.
A recent GAO report requested by Chairman Scott also found
that inadequate coordination between local, State, and Federal
agencies can result in abuse in residential facilities serving
youth in foster care, and youth with disabilities, going
undetected or unaddressed. In addition to the GAO report, I
join my colleagues in seeking additional oversight action from
the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human
Services.
To address these challenges, we must secure the necessary
funding that the Federal Government needs to fulfill the
promise of JJDPA, and meet the needs of America's youth. One
piece of legislation to help achieve that goal is the Stronger
Child Abuse and Treatment Act, which went through this
committee. This bill increases funding for child abuse
prevention and treatment to keep more families together, and to
lower the number of young people funneled into out of home
placement.
I was pleased to support this legislation when it passed
the House last year, and I urge my colleagues in the Senate to
take it up, to follow through on our promise to protect our
Nation's children from abuse. The work we do today will affect
generations of children who need support, support-we can
provide, to lead fulfilling lives.
Our discussion and our commitment to strengthening the
juvenile justice and child welfare systems must be treated with
the urgency this important issue demands. Thank you, I look
forward to a meaningful discussion today, and I now recognize
Ranking Member Fulcher for his opening statement.
[The Statement of Chairwoman Bonamici follows:]
Statement of Hon. Suzanne Bonamici, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Civil
Rights and Human Services
Today's hearing will focus on how we can improve the juvenile
justice system and better support America's young people.
This is a particularly relevant topic as we commemorate the 68th
anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of
Education. Despite the initial progress we made following this historic
decision, our public schools are more segregated by race and class
today than at any time since the 1960s. We know racially isolated and
under-resourced schools contribute to the school-to-prison-pipeline and
harm students' academic and social development.
Children flourish when they have consistent, nurturing adults in
their lives. When these supports are not available, children are more
likely to become delinquent and at risk of being removed from their
home or family.
Today, tens of thousands of children are in out-of-home placements,
both in juvenile detention facilities and congregate care facilities.
Tragically, these facilities have often been found to increase exposure
to trauma and negatively affect children's education-all in the name of
treatment.
The use of congregate care facilities instead of investing in a
humane child welfare system can have dire consequences. My home state
of Oregon has shifted away from and overhauled accountability for the
congregate care system, largely thanks to the advocacy of my friend and
former colleague, Oregon State Senator Sara Gelser Blouin. Last year I
met with Senator Blouin and a survivor of the congregate care system,
Uvea Spezza-Lopin, who had been sent to a facility out of state and
regularly sedated, restrained, and locked in a seclusion room. Uvea
showed great courage by sharing her story and standing up against abuse
in this system. I also met with advocates in my office just last week,
who also spoke out about unfair and abusive treatment. We must follow
their inspiration and advocacy and act to improve these systems.
In addition to the steep challenges of congregate care facilities,
the juvenile justice system is still falling short of its intended
purpose: to focus on the best interests of children by rehabilitating
and reintegrating rather than punishing them.
An under-resourced juvenile justice system--coupled with zero
tolerance policies and increased policing in schools--has led to a
system that disproportionately polices the lives of Black and Brown
boys and girls, offering no meaningful intervention and eventually
feeding into the adult criminal justice system. In other words, the
juvenile justice system has become a core contributor to the school-to-
prison pipeline.
The federal government has an important role. In 1974, Congress
passed the Juvenile Justice Delinquency and Prevention Act, which
implemented three core components: First, it established core
protections that states must follow to protect children in the juvenile
justice system. Second, it authorized formula grants to help states run
their juvenile justice systems. Finally, it created the Justice
Department's Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention, or the
O-J-J-D-P, to oversee juvenile justice programs.
In 2018, Congress updated this law to strengthen the core
protections for children under J-J-D-P-A and focus on addressing racial
disparities in our juvenile justice system. Although this
reauthorization was the result of bipartisan efforts to align juvenile
justice systems with evidence-based policies, many states have
experienced challenges implementing the law.
For example, the Trump Administration did not provide adequate
implementation guidance to states, even though many states were non-
compliant with their responsibilities under J-J-D-P-A.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also posed challenges for states to
implement the requirements and monitor state juvenile justice
facilities. As we continue to recover, we hope to work with states and
the O-J-J-D-P to provide the guidance necessary and help states meet
children's needs.
A recent GAO report requested by Chairman Scott also found that
inadequate coordination between local, state, and federal agencies can
result in abuse in residential facilities serving youth in foster care
and youth with disabilities going undetected or unaddressed. In
addition to this G-A-O report, I joined my colleagues in seeking
additional oversight action from the Inspector General of the
Department of Health and Human Services.
To address these challenges, we must secure the necessary funding
that the federal government needs to fulfill the promise of J-J-D-P-A
and meet the needs of America's youth. One piece of legislation to help
achieve that goal is the Stronger Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment
Act. This bill increases funding for child abuse prevention and
treatment to keep more families together and lower the number of young
people funneled into out-of-home placement. I was pleased to support
this legislation when it passed the House last year and urge my
colleagues in the Senate to take it up to follow through on our promise
to protect our nation's children from abuse.
The work we do today will affect generations of children who need
support--support we can provide--to lead fulfilling lives. Our
discussion--and our commitment to strengthening the juvenile justice
and child welfare systems--must be treated with the urgency this
important issue demands.
Thank you, and I look forward to a meaningful discussion today.
______
Mr. Fulcher. Thank you, Madam Chair. Promoting safe
communities for America's children is a national priority.
Every child should have a space to grow into becoming a
productive member of society. That's why Federal policies have
long supported State and local efforts to set at-risk youth and
juvenile offenders on the pathway to success.
Parents, teachers, and community leaders are the first line
of defense when it comes to preventing criminal behavior from
at-risk youth. These local leaders are also the ones best
equipped to address youth that are already involved with
illegal activities. At the Federal level Congress has taken
steps to improve the juvenile justice system.
Since 2018, the reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention Act has been working to set at-risk
youth up for long-term success. This legislation provided State
and local leaders greater flexibility to meet the needs of
delinquent youth in their communities and improve public
safety. This legislation put in place data driven evidence
programs, as well as important accountability and oversight
measures.
These reforms help uphold our responsibility to spend
taxpayer dollars wisely by ensuring the programs are living up
to their stated goal to prevent youth from falling into
criminal activity. Anyone who works in this field knows that
prevention is key. Youth who have had dealings with the
juvenile justice system are more likely to continue that
direction.
Part of that prevention is working with strong partners at
the local level to help at-risk kids get on the right path.
Faith-based providers are crucial partners when it comes to
preventing crime and helping youth going through the juvenile
justice system to stop becoming repeat offenders.
There are already too many youths entangled in the juvenile
justice system. In 2019, there were more than 722,000 instances
of young people being detained, or committed in the juvenile
justice system. We can all agree this number is too high,
preventing youth from ending up in detention is imperative. We
know that incarcerating youth greatly decreases their chance
for a successful future.
In fact, a report from a 2015 MIT economist found that
incarcerated juveniles are 32 percent more likely to go to jail
as an adult. Youth who have been incarcerated also are 13 to 39
percent less likely to graduate from high school. While
prevention of juvenile crime is always the goal, tragically
there may be that rare occasion, often connected to some form
of substance, mental or physical abuse, where out of home
placement must be considered.
We must remember that taking a child who has gotten
involved in criminal activity out of his or her home should not
be done lightly, but in no circumstances where out of home
placement does become necessary, we must ensure these
facilities are safe, focused on avoiding recidivism, and giving
the juvenile a chance to succeed.
We all want to see our Nation's youth thrive. Every child
deserves the opportunity to achieve success in life and a
second change. Madam Chair I yield back.
[The Statement of Ranking Member Fulcher follows:]
Statement of Hon. Russ Fulcher, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Civil
Rights and Human Services
Promoting safe communities for America's children is a national
priority. Every child should have the space to grow into becoming a
productive member of society. That is why federal policies have long
supported state and local efforts to set at-risk youth and juvenile
offenders on the pathway to success.
Parents, teachers, and community leaders are the first line of
defense when it comes to preventing criminal behavior from at-risk
youth. These local leaders are also the ones best equipped to address
youth that have already fallen into illegal activity.
At the federal level, Congress has taken steps to improve the
Juvenile Justice system. Since 2018, the reauthorization of the
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act has been working to set
at risk youth up for long-term success. This legislation provided state
and local leaders greater flexibility to meet the needs of delinquent
youth in their communities and improve public safety.
This legislation put in place data driven evidence-based programs,
as well as important accountability and oversight measures. These
reforms helped uphold our responsibility to spend taxpayer dollars
wisely by ensuring the programs are living up to their stated goal--to
prevent youth from falling into criminal activity.
Anyone who works in this field knows that prevention is key. Youth
who have had dealings with the juvenile justice system, are more likely
to continue that direction. Part of that prevention is working with
strong partners at the local level to help at-risk kids get on the
right path. Faith-based providers are crucial partners when it comes to
preventing crime and helping youth going through the juvenile justice
system to stop becoming repeat offenders.
There are already too many youths entangled in the juvenile justice
system. In 2019, there were more than 722,000 instances of young people
being detained or committed in the juvenile justice system. We can all
agree this number is too high.
Preventing youth from ending up in detention is imperative. We know
that incarcerating youth greatly decreases their chances for a
successful future. In fact, a 2015 report from an MIT economist found
that incarcerated juveniles are 32 percent more likely to go to jail as
an adult. Youth who have been incarcerated are also 13 to 39 percent
less likely to graduate from high school.
While prevention of juvenile crime is always the goal, tragically,
there may be that rare occasion--often connected to some form of
substance, mental, or physical abuse--where out of home placement must
be considered. We must remember that taking a child who has gotten
involved in criminal activity out of his or her home should not be done
lightly. In those circumstances where out of home placement does become
necessary, we must ensure these facilities are safe, focused on
avoiding recidivism, and giving the juvenile the chance to succeed.
We all want to see our nation's youth thrive. Every child deserves
the opportunity to achieve success in life, and a second chance.
______
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you, Ranking Member Fulcher.
Without objection, all other members who wish to insert written
statements into the record may do so by submitting them to the
committee clerk electronically in Microsoft Word format by 5
o'clockpm on May 31. I will now introduce the witnesses.
Ms. Lisette Burton is the Chief Policy and Practice Advisor
for the International Association of Children's Residential and
Community Services (ACRC). Previously, Lisette was the Vice
President of National Advocacy and Public Policy for the
National Non-profit Boys Town where she advocated for effective
Federal and State policies related to child welfare, juvenile
justice, education, and health.
She received her BS degree in science from Eberly College
of Science at Penn State University, and her JD at the
University of Maryland Carey School of Law.
Mr. Hasan Davis is the former Commissioner and Deputy
Commission of Juvenile Justice for the Commonwealth of
Kentucky. He previously served as Director of Youth Violence
Prevention for the city of Lexington, Kentucky, and is Vice
Chair of the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice. He
is a graduate of Berea College, and the University of Kentucky
College of Law.
Mr. Alan Loux is President and Chief Executive Officer of
Rawhide Youth Services, a private provider of residential and
counseling services for youth based in New London, Wisconsin.
He oversees the strategic direction, vision and management of
all of Rawhide's programs and services. He holds an
undergraduate degree in business and economics from Wheaton
College, and an MBA in marketing from the University of
Wisconsin, Madison.
Appearing virtually, Dr. Karen Kolivoski. She is an
Associate Professor of Community Administration and Policy
Practice at the Howard University School of Social Work. She
also serves as the lead data consultant for the crossover youth
practice model, CYPM, at the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform
at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown
University.
She received her master of social work and Ph.D. in social
work from the University of Pittsburgh, and was a postdoctoral
fellow in the School of Social Work at the University of
Maryland, Baltimore.
We appreciate the witnesses for participating today, and we
look forward to your testimony. Let me remind the witnesses
that we have read your written statements, and they will appear
in full in the hearing record. Pursuant to Committee Rule 8(d)
and committee practice, each of you is asked to limit your oral
presentation to a 5-minute summary of your written statement.
Before you begin your testimony, please remember to unmute
your microphone. During your testimony staff will be keeping
track of time, and a timer should be visible to you at the
witness stand. Please be attentive to the time and wrap up when
your time is over, and re-mute your microphone.
We will let all the witnesses make their presentations
before we move to member questions. When answering a question
please remember to unmute your microphone. The witnesses are
aware of their responsibility to provide accurate information
to the subcommittee, and therefore we will proceed with your
testimony.
I will first recognize Ms. Burton. You are recognized for 5
minutes for your testimony.
STATEMENT OF LISETTE BURTON, CHIEF POLICY AND PRACTICE ADVISOR,
ASSOCIATION OF CHILDREN'S RESIDENTIAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICES,
MILWAUKEE, WI
Ms. Burton. Good morning, Chair Bonamici, Ranking Member
Fulcher, Chairman Scott, and members of the Civil Rights and
Human Services Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to
testify today about ways to improve the juvenile justice system
and better support America's young people. My name is Lisette
Burton, I work for ACRC, and we're a nonprofit association and
resource for individuals and organizations that provide
critical behavioral, mental health, and other supportive
services to children and families.
ACRC provides training, research and advocacy to advance
innovation and best practices in the field. It is fitting that
you are hosting this hearing in May. May is Mental Health
Awareness Month, and depending on the depth of system
involvement, as many as 70 percent of young people in the
juvenile justice system have a mental health diagnosis.
May is also National Foster Care Month. A Washington study
revealed that as a many as two-thirds of the youth referred to
Juvenile Courts had some level of involvement with the child
welfare system. A study of children in Pennsylvania concluded
that children in foster care who experience five or more
placements are even more likely to enter the juvenile justice
system at a rate of 90 percent.
These statistics are striking, but even more impactful are
the stories of young people who have experienced the justice
system. This can be as heard directly from young people in the
past, and I hope you will again soon, host a roundtable to hear
their firsthand accounts, understand their journeys, and
consider their recommendations for ways we can better support
the youth of America.
Respectfully, I suggest that this committee can do three
things to make a difference for young people. First, support a
continuum of high-quality services and supports for youth and
families. Second, increase investments and work across system
silos considering the various funding streams and sectors that
support youth and family well-being.
Third, support implementation and funding of the Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. Starting with the
continuum, we know that children are different from adults. The
brain science and our Supreme Court have confirmed this fact
time and again, and this is the reason why we have a juvenile
justice system separate from the adult system, and meant to
focus on rehabilitation, and acknowledge the enormous potential
young people have to change and to grow.
The good news is that youth arrest and detention have
declined steeply over the past 25 years. We are trending in the
right direction overall, but racial and ethnic disparities
persist. Black and Native American youth continue to be more
likely to face arrest and confinement, and we continue to
incarcerate too many young people who would be best served in
their own homes and communities.
To transform the juvenile justice system, and better
support young people and families, we need to close harmful
youth prisons, many of which are already under capacity and not
necessary for public safety. As I detailed in my written
testimony, we must invest in a continuum of approaches and
services that prevent system contact, that provide effective
intervention when needed, and ensure young people who do touch
the system, or require out of home care do not cycle back into
that system.
As we think about policies to support this continuum of
prevention, effective high-quality intervention and after care,
Congress can improve outcomes by increasing investments and
working across traditional silos. The COVID-19 pandemic has
exacerbated negative trends in the mental and behavior health
status of children and adolescents worldwide.
Multiple committees in Congress, including the Committee on
Education and Labor, have helped focus hearings related to the
youth mental health crisis, and this is a challenge that this
committee is uniquely positioned to address with jurisdiction
over both education and juvenile justice, the committee can,
and should, incentivize states to recognize and treat trauma
and mental illness across all systems that serve children.
Various Federal funding streams can be used to improve
youth mental health, prevent delinquency, and support the well-
being of children and families, thinking intentionally across
traditional system silos will lead to more creative and
impactful solutions.
The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act is
critical to system transformation. As Chair Bonamici explained
the history of the JJDPA, it is the only funding stream that
specifically supports and creates Federal oversight for youth
justice, and Federal investments play an essential role in
State juvenile justice efforts to protect youth, prevent
delinquency and promote safe communities.
Current funding levels are still well below what they were
20 years ago, and far from what is needed to adequately provide
services and supports for young people and communities. JJDPA
has been an extremely successful law, yet cuts to these
programs have weakened the Federal State partnership. As we
prepare for JJDPA reauthorization, Congress should not only
increase funding, but should also consider what the latest
research is telling us, what additional data we need, and
incorporate opportunities for states to innovate and create new
strategies that will continue to improve outcomes for children.
Now more than ever, after 2 years of a global pandemic, as
young people are faced with unprecedented levels of trauma and
uncertainty, we need to invest in our youth and their families.
One of the most important things we can do to reduce the impact
of justice system involvement, and the associated societal and
economic costs, is to support effective prevention and
intervention strategies for children, adolescents and young
adults.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to answering
any question you may have.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Burton follows.]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you, Ms. Burton for your
testimony. We will now hear from Mr. Davis. You are recognized
for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF MR. A. HASAN DAVIS, FOUNDER/DIRECTOR HASAN DAVIS
SOLUTIONS L.L.C., LEXINGTON, KY
Mr. Davis. Chairwoman Bonamici, Ranking Member Fulcher, and
distinguished members of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and
Human Services, thank you for the opportunity and privilege of
testifying before you today. My name is Hasan Davis, and like
you I am a hope dealer. I believe every child in America
deserves to be safe, supported, and provided a clear path to
success in education, career and community life, but every day
in America thousands of our children are drained from this
robust school to career pipeline and flushed down the spout of
school to prison pipeline.
Everyday thousands of our children take their last step
away from a schoolhouse, and too often their first step toward
a jailhouse. Our focus today is juvenile justice, but it is not
a conversation we can fully embrace without understanding what
came before.
At every decisionmaking point disparities create
unacceptable differences in how youth encounter the juvenile
justice system. Race, disability and poverty remain the highest
indicators of deep and long-term involvement in juvenile
justice. Youth with disabilities, the 13 percent of all
students, with 78 percent of those restrained. 58 percent of
those isolated, 25 percent of students referred to law
enforcement. Youth with disabilities are twice as likely to be
suspended from school.
Black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three
times greater than white students. Indigenous youth,
representing less than 1 percent of our student population make
up 2 percent of all out of student suspensions, 3 percent of
all expulsions. Research has shown that a suspension doubles
the chance of dropout before graduation, with 16 to 32 percent.
Each additional suspension increases that risk by 10
percent. Dropouts are three and a half times more likely to be
arrested, eight times as likely to experience jail or prison
than a graduate, and that brings us back to juvenile justice.
For more than 20 years the Juvenile Detention Alternatives
Initiative of the NE Casey Foundation has shed light on the
impact juvenile detention has on youth.
Youth placed in confinement faced similar harms and
injuries as adults in incarceration. Youth with mental health
needs are overrepresented, and those with behavior health
problems only get worse in detention. Detention is designed for
control, the process is often traumatizing with invasive strip
searches and body examinations, followed by moments of
isolation.
For youth experiencing trauma and mental health challenges,
this experience is damaging. Most youth in detention are not
accused of some heinous crime, most are truant, runaways, or
status offenders. Some sent to detentions specifically to teach
them a lesson, but the humiliation and shame too often praised
by scared straight advocates to deter delinquent behavior only
serves as an accelerant.
These youth are better served in their home communities
with robust alternatives to detention services. Examples of
these are professional and peer counseling, evening reporting
centers, access to the arts, and art therapy, mentoring, and
out of school time programming. I would not be here today
without alternatives to detention.
As a youth suffering from ADHD and dyslexia, I was arrested
at 11 years old, sentenced to probation the rest of my
childhood. My family found ways to engage me in the arts,
camps, martial arts. I was enrolled in alternative schools that
supported my different learning. I was able to develop the
social and emotional foundation to rewrite my own narrative.
I can only imagine how different my life would have been
had I been sentenced to detention. We know youth returning from
placement continue to be identified as delinquent, often
returning to alternative programs, or special classrooms. Many
with special needs never returned to school.
The stigma limits access to work and social activities that
could serve as resisters to future justice involvement. A
separate juvenile justice system was created by the U.S. to
divert youth from the destructive impact of Criminal Court, and
encourage rehabilitation based on their needs.
We have eroded this philosophy, becoming another correction
system managing a child service function, instead of a robust
youth service system that strategically maintains limited
corrections component. Now that we have fully authorized the
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, thanks to the
efforts of Chairman Scott and many of you present today, our
focus must change.
We must focus on being youth centered, family focused,
community-based, and trauma responsive. I challenge us to ask
the question what if? What if juvenile justice had clear orders
to ensure all youth are safe, supported, and on a path to
success? What if we deployed more hope dealers, highly
motivated, skilled and trained experts with one mission--to
engage, encourage and empower the youth they serve?
What if we reserve secure detention for those who are
dangers to themselves or our communities? What if we demand
alternatives to detention that ensure youth never leave the
credit to career pipeline? What if, ladies and gentlemen, we
simply refuse to allow juvenile justice to remain that place
where dreams go to die?
Thank you again for the opportunity to share my thoughts.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Davis follows.]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you, Mr. Davis for your
testimony, and for sharing your compelling personal story.
Next, we will hear from Mr. Loux. You are recognized for 5
minutes for your testimony.
STATEMENT OF MR. ALAN LOUX, PRESIDENT AND CEO, RAWHIDE YOUTH
SERVICES, NEW LONDON, WI
Mr. Loux. My name is Alan Loux, President and CEO of
Rawhide Youth Services, which was founded in 1965 by John and
Jane Gillespie, together with football legend Bart Starr, and
his wife Sherri. Thank you, Chair Bonamici, Ranking Member
Fulcher, and the members of the Education and Labor
Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services, for allowing
me to share Rawhide's story from a provider's perspective.
Rawhide is a private not for profit, faith based behavioral
and mental health agency that provides community and
residential services for moderately and severely at-risk youth.
It is best known for its qualified residential treatment
program conducted at its New London, Wisconsin campus, which
includes 30 buildings, and 600 wooded acres on the banks of the
Wolf River.
This unsecured residential program serves up to 50 youth at
a time, and features a fully accredited high school, and a wide
range of therapeutic services to meet the needs of 11 to 17
year old adolescent males, who are referred to it via the
Wisconsin Juvenile Court system.
The youth live in homes of 8 to 12, alongside live-in staff
to provide a homelike environment. Although Rawhide began as a
residential care facility, it now provides school-based
counseling in 20 area schools, and operates eight outpatient
mental health clinics.
We provide five equine facilities, making it Wisconsin's
largest provider of equine assisted therapy, which has emerged
as a promising, evidence-based treatment for youth with
suicidal ideation and other depressive disorders.
Recently it entered a partnership with Brown County,
Wisconsin to provide a range of mental health and related
services aimed at keeping youth from entering the juvenile
justice system. Rawhide also provides vocational education and
work experiences to help at risk youth succeed in getting and
keeping a job.
It has forged alliances with New London, Wisconsin's school
district and Goodwill Industries to provide life skills and
vocational education for both area and on campus youth to help
them develop skills and experiences necessary for gainful,
long-term employment.
As a faith-based agency, Rawhide seeks to adjust spiritual
needs by serving everyone seeking care regardless of belief,
meeting them where they are on their faith continuum. Its
residential programs and practices are designed to instill key
core values, unconditional love, faith, hope, and perseverance.
Its approach is not through proselytizing, but by exposing
youth frequently for the first time, to religious ideals in
various settings.
These include prayer before meals, facilitating youth
attendance at local churches of their choosing, and providing a
fulltime counselor associated with the Christian based Young
Life Program.
I am pleased to report that Rawhide's holistic approach,
coupled with active involvement of dedicated caseworkers and
parents bears fruit. According to the Wisconsin Department of
Children and Families, in 2020 Rawhide had among the best
outcome scorers, with 82 percent of discharged youth being
successfully reunited with their families, and 88 percent
remaining out of juvenile justice system for at least 6 months
following discharge.
Achieving such results requires working collaboratively
within a complex eco-system of caregivers who are dedicated to
the best interest of the youth that we serve, working together,
is working.
Rawhide obtains funding from government agencies and
insurance companies, in addition to significant public
charitable contributions, including a donation of more than
5,000 vehicles annually, many are sold to wholesale and retail
customers, while others are utilized in the auto maintenance
component of Rawhide's vocational education program.
These public private partnerships are a model of
collaboration that support Rawhide's initiatives to enhance the
development of our youth. Rawhide believes that its holistic
approach is well suited to address behavioral and education
related issues affecting those in the juvenile justice system.
Aberrant behaviors and school problems are most often the
result of trauma that the youth have experienced or mental
illness.
Rawhide's approach to these challenges incorporates trauma
informed principles, based on the understanding that meaningful
change is dependent upon first addressing the underlying causes
of misbehavior. Therapy, education, and family engagement are
essential components of this process.
For most youth community-based prevention and diversion
programs will have the best outcomes. However, for those
limited serious cases where prevention and diversion programs
may prove ineffective, short term residential treatment remains
a viable and effective solution.
In sum, whether it be prevention, or diversion programs,
school, or community focused therapy, or out of home short term
residential treatment, an effective system requires a seamless
continuum of care, and a broad range of caregivers, including
family and public and private agencies working together for the
betterment of our youth.
Thank you for this opportunity to share Rawhide's story
from a provider perspective. I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Loux follows.]
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Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you for your testimony. Now I
recognize Dr. Kolivoski. You are recognized for 5 minutes for
your testimony.
STATEMENT OF KAREN KOLIVOSKI, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, HOWARD
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Ms. Kolivoski. Good morning and thank you. My name is Dr.
Karen Kolivoski, and I am an Associate Professor in the School
of Social Work at Howard University. I am also the lead data
consultant for the Crossover Youth Practice Model at the Center
for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University.
My research focuses on youth who intersect with the child
welfare and juvenile justice systems, so that we can inform
policy and practice changes to promote better outcomes.
Children and youth who are suspected of engaging in delinquency
are usually processed through the juvenile justice system.
It was founded on the recognition that children are
developmentally distinct from adults, and because they are
still developing, are more amenable to intervention. Early
reformers envisioned a system that would protect young people
from the harms of the adult system, and focus on rehabilitation
and treatment so they can go on to lead productive lives.
For children and youth with histories related to abuse and
neglect, the purpose of the child welfare system is to provide
for their safety, permanency and well-being. However, if those
needs are not met, they may act out through behavior that comes
to the attention of juvenile justice.
The term crossover youth refers to a young person who has
experienced maltreatment and engages in delinquency. Given
their dual role as both a victim, and as a person exhibiting
delinquent behavior, crossover youth comprise a distinct group.
Among youth in the juvenile justice system, almost two-thirds
have had some contact with child welfare. The most common
pathway is first coming into child welfare, followed by
juvenile justice.
Crossover youth are more likely to experience adverse
outcomes in life, such as greater mental health, educational
and employment needs. They are also more susceptible to
becoming involved in the criminal justice system. Among dual
system youth there is over representation of black youth, and a
higher proportion of girls.
Another area of special need is for youth who identify as
LGBTQ or gender nonconforming. Research shows us that what
works is to focus on prevention and early intervention,
including preventing many youth from having initial contact
with systems and reducing deep end involvement.
We need to make sure youth receive quality, supportive
services such as mental health and substance abuse services, as
well as education, extracurricular activities, and prosocial
relationships. Out of home placement refers to removal of the
youth from home, and placing them in a different environment
whether a family life, or group care setting. This is a major
life event.
Researchers identified several risk factors that lead to
out-of-home placement in the juvenile justice system, including
have a chronic maltreatment history, child welfare system
experiences, and specifically being placed in group care
settings, and by simply being a crossover youth.
For example, crossover youth are less likely to be referred
for home-based probation, versus out of home placement and
juvenile justice. As part of the mission of these systems to
help young people, we do not want to make things harder for
them, but often we do not acknowledge the harmful role they do
have. Many youth experience abuse in residential settings.
Secure confinement abuse is related to worse delinquent and
criminal behavior. Arrest rates for youth who have been in
confinement can be as high, and confinement is expensive, and
disproportionately affects youth of color. When a youth is in
placement, we are asking them to change, while also adjusting
to an unfamiliar environment, and still dealing with trauma.
One program that has been shown to help systems better
understand how to serve youth is the Crossover Youth Practice
Model, which seeks broad practice and policy changes through
increasing communication and collaboration across human and
legal service agencies and community partners. Since its
founding in 2010, CYPM has been implemented in 120 counties in
24 states. Its goals include reductions in the number of
crossover youth, youth and out-of-home placement, and the use
of congregate care, and reducing the overrepresentation of
youth of color.
More broadly are efforts that can be made at the Federal
level to provide funding to jurisdictions focused on
prevention, early intervention, and diversion related to
juvenile justice system contact. A strong social safety net can
prevent many issues further downstream. Delinquency prevention
begins in the child welfare system, providing front end
supportive services such as mental health and substance abuse
treatment offers key benefits, as can connecting youth to
meaningful adults, and in many ways treating them like a
typical teenager.
Amplifying youth voices is also important to understand
their perspective. Increasing emphasis on family, and family
like settings, and community-based supports, can help most
youth, while not sacrificing public safety. The use of out-of-
home placements needs to come after careful consideration and
not without exhausting other options.
Finally, increasing research funds to further study
pathways of crossover youth to identify clogs in the system,
and gaps in services, as well as efforts that support cross-
system collaboration and data sharing can help ensure that we
are best meeting the needs of this vulnerable population. Thank
you for your consideration.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Kolivoski follows.]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you for your testimony. Under
Committee Rule 9(a), we will now question witnesses under the
5-minute rule. I will be recognizing subcommittee members in
seniority order. Again, we have a 5-minute rule. Staff will be
keeping track of time, so please be attentive to the time and
wrap up when your time is over, and re-mute your microphone.
As Chair I recognize myself for 5 minutes. Dr. Kolivoski, a
few years ago my home State of Oregon had foster youth in 16
different states, in various residential facilities, making
oversight nearly impossible. After intense media scrutiny,
uncovering reports of abuse and neglect in some of these
facilities, Oregon announced it would discontinue sending
foster youth out of State.
I requested that the Office of Inspector General at the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services investigate youth
congregate care and residential facilities. What kind of harm
can children be exposed to when placed in these facilities, and
how does that affect their life trajectory?
Ms. Kolivoski. Sure. The research supports that we want to
try to keep youth at home as much as possible, and to reserve
the use of out of home placements because we know that they can
be harmful. For youth who are in group homes, they are more
likely to run away, and that we know is that running away from
placement impacts their juvenile justice involvement.
In these systems, again we hope that people are kind and
caring and supportive, and that they're having great treatment,
but we also know that abuse can also occur in out of home
placements, especially congregate care settings. Things like
hostility, and punishment for trivial infractions from staff.
If you are in a more group care setting such as family care
setting, it is more likely that the police will be called to
kind of deal with intervention versus if you are in a family in
home environment where the police are going to be less likely.
Thinking about that as kind of a pathway into the juvenile
justice--further into the juvenile justice system.
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you. That is really helpful. Ms.
Burton, research has shown that several populations, including
girls, LGBTQ youth, and youth exposed to violence, are
disproportionately represented in the juvenile justice system
and residential facilities. Ms. Burton, why is this the case,
and how can policy reforms address these disparities?
What kind of guidance could help states address the racial
and ethnic disparities within these systems?
Ms. Burton. Thank you for that question. Serving girls is
something that many jurisdictions unfortunately are struggling
with, and it is something that was acknowledged in the
reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquent
Prevention the last time around. We recognized that we need
gender specific services focused on girls.
I am a D.C. resident. I sit on D.C. State advisory group,
we call it the JJAG, the Juvenile Justice Advisory Group. Right
now, one of the conversations that we are having in partnership
with Judges and the Department of Youth Rehabilitation
Services, and community partners, and young people themselves,
is how do we provide the resources in particular that girls
need? How do we address racial and ethnic disparities?
I think addressing racial and ethnic disparities is a local
issue. The issues that D.C. is having are going to be very
different from maybe the issues that you see in Oklahoma, or
Pennsylvania, or New York. That is part of what is so great
about the JJDPA, it allows for funding for folks who are local
to come up with local solutions, but it certainly exists.
In D.C. what we have noted is that the point where
disparities happen is at arrest. When we talk about what can we
do to solve that problem, we are really looking at arrest
records, and trying to gather additional data so that we can
come up with a solution to actually solve that problem.
Certainly, better data helps local states, counties,
respond to the need. In general, when we talk about gender
specific services, part of the challenge is for example girls
represent overall a small percentage of the juvenile justice
system and services, and so I think sometimes we do not have
those gender specific services for them.
We have got them in a facility not designed for them, with
services not designed for them.
Chairwoman Bonamici. I do not want to cut you off, but I am
going to try to get in another question in my remaining minute.
Ms. Burton. Yes, please.
Chairwoman Bonamici. Mr. Davis, I appreciate your testimony
highlighting the importance of alternatives to detention. I
have legislation -- the Arts Education for All Act, which
requires State juvenile justice and delinquency plans to
describe how the State will coordinate services and activities
with arts, agencies and arts organizations.
What benefits of programs like this, what benefits will
those provide to students?
Mr. Davis. Thank you for that question, ma'am. Well, I
think that the arts are actually a core, or an integral part of
how we move young people, how we reclaim young people in our
communities. The arts for me personally have proven to be an
access point to a transformation.
The data that speaks clearly to the fact that the arts can
be used, not just therapeutically, but to engage young people
in their own self exploration in a way that is not always
allowed in these kinds of settings. Young people who have
access to the arts are known to graduate school with less
challenge. Even those who face challenges and justice system
involvement have found more success transitioning out of
education into other possibilities. I think the arts should be
a core part of how we reimagine what juvenile justice looks
like ma'am.
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you very much. I note as I yield
back that we use arts therapy for veterans with PTSD very
successfully. I now recognize I understand Representative
McClain is going to go next from Michigan for 5 minutes for
your questions.
Mrs. McClain. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Thank you all
for being here. I think what we are talking about today is
extremely important, not only for the juveniles, but for us as
a society to you know to do better. To you Mr. Laux, Amen to
getting faith back into people's lives. I think with a little
bit of kindness and a lot of hope sir, I think we can provide a
different vision for our youth.
I think that vision is actually critical. I want to talk a
little bit, a lot about the success because it seems at least
at first blush, that we are making some progress. Is that a
fair assumption? I am not saying we do not have a long way to
go, but I am curious to get some facts a little bit too. Mr.
Laux, can you describe the types of crimes committed by the
juveniles that are referred to your residential care facility?
Are they wide-ranging? Are they specific?
Mr. Loux. Sure, we will have a wide range. Right now, 100
percent of the kids that we serve are coming through the
juvenile justice system, and through the Court's system because
of behaviors. It can be anywhere from crimes from stealing
cars, to abuse, to situations of juvenile delinquency mostly,
and so those are kind of the things that we see from those that
need to be taken out because they aren't safe in their own
homes, for even themselves or for their families.
Mrs. McClain. Any violent crimes?
Mr. Loux. We do not take if it is homicide, we do not take
that. We think that that is probably best reserved for those
for the juvenile system, for prisons, or juvenile prisons
because a lot of those issues are complex.
Mrs. McClain. Sure.
Mr. Loux. Yes, that is what we take.
Mrs. McClain. Okay. From my State in 2021, Michigan's
recidivism rate was reported at 26.7 percent. I am trying to
figure out what is your recidivism rate? I have got to believe
you have some good stories right?
Mr. Loux. I can tell you from a Rawhide perspective.
Mrs. McClain. Yes.
Mr. Loux. We had 88 percent of the individuals that went
through the program did not come back into the system. That
means 12 percent, and that is on an annual basis, that is only
for 6 months. Overall, from a system standpoint----
Mrs. McClain. I am sorry, just in the interest of time, I
do not mean to be rude, but I know you have tracked it for 6
months, which is great. Have you done any long-term studies on
that because I got to believe it is----
Mr. Loux. The State of Wisconsin actually tracks it for 6
months and reports it from a transparency standpoint. I am not
aware of longitudinal studies longer than that from Wisconsin's
standpoint.
Mrs. McClain. Okay. What is the criteria that you use to
say that a juvenile has been rehabilitated? Is it that
recidivism rate?
Mr. Loux. It is going to be a couple different things. You
know one is every student that comes in is coming for
treatment, so they are going to have a treatment plan, so they
have got some mental illness diagnoses. They are going to have
an education plan, and there is going to be goals set around
that, and it is going to be tracked under progress as long as
they are there.
Mrs. McClain. You actually have a plan with specific goals,
with specific measurements that you track?
Mr. Loux. Yes. Every youth that comes, there is a plan that
is combined with the counties, the juvenile justice system and
Rawhide.
Mrs. McClain. Very good. I am just curious in your State of
Wisconsin, the city of Milwaukee is rampant with violent
carjackings. A lot of them committed by youth. Do you see a lot
of those people coming in?
Mr. Loux. Yes, we do.
Mrs. McClain. To your facilities?
Mr. Loux. Yes.
Mrs. McClain. Those are the types of individuals we are
speaking of.
Mr. Loux. Those are the ones that we are serving, yes.
Mrs. McClain. Okay. I want to shift for one moment to an
economic perspective because we are talking about taxpayer
fundings, and we are also trying to talk about breaking the
cycle for these juveniles right? I do not have the numbers, but
I am curious if you do. If we send a child to a detention
facility let us say, I have got to believe that has a cost
associated with it, and maybe even a long-term cost because it
doesn't break the cycle.
Is my ladder on the right wall with that versus if we send
them to a juvenile facility like what we are talking about--
what did you say, I am sorry, prevention and early
intervention, we not only break the cycle, which has wonderful
long-term effects, but I have got to believe the funding that
you are going to require will be a lot less than a juvenile
detention based on your success rates.
In my 15 seconds, do we have any data on that?
Ms. Burton. Ma'am I will respond if I can in 8 seconds. We
know that juvenile prisons across the country are highly under
capacity, which means it costs more per child to serve children
in those highly restrictive security facilities. We can best
serve children closer to the communities, and closer to their
own homes.
Mrs. McClain. Do we have any actual physical data on to
incarcerate a child is $50,000.00 a year, versus to
rehabilitate the child through one of your programs costs 13?
Ms. Burton. We do. I would be happy to followup and send
you those numbers after.
Mrs. McClain. I would love to see those. Thank you. I am
sorry.
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you. I now recognize
Representative Bowman from New York for 5 minutes for your
questions.
Mr. Bowman. Yes. Thank you so much, Madam Chair, for
holding this really important hearing. I have a question for
all of our witnesses. Thank you so much to the witnesses for
being here. I heard someone mention, forgive me for forgetting
who it was. They used the word ``reimagine''. You know I am a
former middle school principal.
I did that for 10 and a half years, in Title 1 schools in
the Bronx, New York, and I was an educator for 20 years, so the
life of children and what their experiences are, are near and
dear to my heart, particularly around the issue of trauma, and
particularly around the issue of complex trauma, and adverse
childhood experiences.
As we reimagine the juvenile justice system what might that
look like? Paint a picture for me. Take me inside what this
facility might look like for our most vulnerable kids and
please try to take 30 to 45 seconds each. We will start with
Ms. Kolivoski, and just go across the line. Thank you so much.
Ms. Kolivoski. Thank you so much, and I will try and be
respectful of time too, but this is exciting. We want to make
sure we are not just being critical of what already exists, but
thinking of what we want the future to look like, and for me
based on the research it is about having fully funded and
supportive services on the front end because what we know about
involvement in juvenile justice is the need to go upstream
through the child welfare system. Doing my work on young people
who are involved in these multiple systems, it is about cross
system collaboration, and proving data sharing, communication,
collaboration, fully funding programs, and supporting staff
with livable wages, so that they can do the work that is so
very important to our youth.
Mr. Bowman. Awesome. Thank you for that. I cannot see the
next witness on my screen, but can someone else just kind of
jump in?
Mr. Davis. I am happy to jump in. In following up with what
was just said, I think that one of the things that I see as a
rule, bold reimagining is the idea that we have a core child
serving system, that we do not have all these silos that are
held up by FERPA and HIPAA, and all of the things that prevent
us from having communication between agencies about critical
information young people ought to be relaying back and forth in
order to really meet their success.
I also believe that in order for us to really get there we
have to be engaged in community work. Young people being served
in community with family and support, so that they continue to
maintain the process of moving forward toward success. Those
that do have to be removed, who are a danger to themselves, and
others ought to be still cared for in a way that is assuming
their accension into success, not assuming their descension
into prison, and I think right now our sense is once they cross
that threshold they are bound for prison, and nobody is really
taking care of that part of the pipeline. Thank you.
Ms. Burton. Just following up on reimagining, and I
appreciate that question. I imagine a system where families and
children are not coming into contact with any system at all.
Here in D.C. as part of our juvenile justice advisory group, we
put out a report that I would be happy to share. We call it the
PINS report. It is looking at persons in need of supervision,
and right now that is a criminalized process.
Families have to engage with a system to get the help that
they need. We are reimagining what it looks like for families
and children to be able to access services, help, supports,
without going through any particular system, but getting what
they need in a community-based fashion.
I would also add that I think reimagining means to Hasan's
point, even young people who may have come into conflict with
the law still deserve all the opportunity to grow and become
the person they have the potential to become, and that means
serving them as close to home in community as possible, with
all of the resources that they need to thrive.
Mr. Bowman. Thank you so much for that. Reimagining for me
it looks a lot like an educational facility where kids have
opportunity to continue their academic advancement while also
having exposure to the arts, community, sports, activity,
healthy diets, talk therapy and a real focus on the mental
health approach through psychotherapy. Have you all seen these
facilities that implement these sort of practices, and I am
down to the wire here, if you can give a quick couple seconds,
and we will go back around to Ms. Kolivoski.
Ms. Kolivoski. Yes. There are systems and facilities that
do trauma informed work, and do it really well that as previous
presenters mentioned, kind of see this delinquent behavior not
as something that needs to be punished, but as something that
we need to have the training for to recognize how to best
respond to, and so I think just increasing that training would
be very beneficial.
Mr. Bowman. Well, thank you all for that. I am out of time.
I would love to followup with each of you just to continue this
conversation and learn more about what is out there that works,
and so that we can figure out how to scale that and support it.
Thank you, Madam Chair, I yield back.
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you, Representative Bowman. I
now recognize Ranking Member Fulcher from Idaho for 5 minutes
for your questions.
Mr. Fulcher. Thank you, Madam Chair. A question for Mr.
Loux, please. You touched on this Mr. Loux on your testimony,
but I have been involved with faith-based organizations before
with some good degree of success. I wanted to just ask you can
you explain with your organization how do you implement, or do
you deal with Christian values in this faith-based
organization? How do you also transcend that into children of
all faiths?
Mr. Loux. Thank you for that question, Mr. Fulcher. From a
faith-based standpoint you know we believe in a balanced
approach from mind, body and spirit in order to be fully well.
The spiritual component is a critical one. As part of
Wisconsin, all facilities like Rawhide, have to accommodate for
spiritual beliefs and practices, regardless of what their faith
is.
Our approach is we will accept and serve anybody of any
religion. We also create an environment though where values and
Christian values of unconditional love, faith, hope, and
perseverance are the values that we try to live out. We also
have practices that we show as well as taking individuals to
either church, we have a Christian-based Young Life program
that is in over 6,000 schools throughout the U.S. that we have
incorporated into our program, which 85 percent--voluntary, of
course--85 percent of those youth voluntarily participate on a
weekly basis, which is quite phenomenal.
Mr. Fulcher. Thank you for that. Just on that same followup
note here, recidivism is always an issue, and it is always a
struggle. Talk about that. What do you think the keys are
within your program that helps minimize that recidivism
problem?
Mr. Loux. I think you know first and foremost, our program
is going to be trauma informed, so we are going to understand
the issues that they had, that they are coming with, and help
them solve it. We focus on integrating the family. We cannot do
it without the family, and that is absolutely critical. Then it
is relationship based.
Developing relationships with these youth allow them to
then transform. Recidivism I believe only comes when internally
somebody changes, and they will change their inside changes,
and that will change their behavior. That combination of
relationships, understanding them, giving them the tools and
the education to help be successful, not in our program, but
when they go home to their families and communities. That is
what has been so successful in decreasing recidivism.
Mr. Fulcher. Often times we hear within the system terms
like punitive, and rehabilitative, and retributed, or
deterrent. While it is all those things, it is supposed to be
in some capacity, how do you see your work fitting into those
various categories? How does that impact the outcomes from your
standpoint?
Mr. Loux. I am going to say I am going to wear two hats.
First and foremost, in the preventing and diverting people from
coming into the system, that is the ideal for everything,
whether it is in the community, but once they come into the
system it is purely rehabilitative. Our goal is to help change
and save the lives of these youth, and get them back on the
right track.
Youth is a tough time period, and this is the time period
to change them and help them.
Mr. Fulcher. Mr. Loux, thank you for that, and Madam Chair
I yield back.
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you, Ranking Member Fulcher. I
now recognize Representative Leger Fernandez from New Mexico
for 5 minutes for your questions.
Ms. Leger Fernandez. Thank you so much Chair Bonamici, and
once again to the witnesses for joining us today, for the work
they do. We know that this work can be heartbreaking because we
are dealing with youth, and what the promise could have been. I
really do believe that we really need to help our children who
find themselves in the justice system so that instead of having
their future stripped away, we can help reignite their dreams
and aspirations, and I thank the witnesses for describing how
they do that.
Mr. Hasan, hearing your accounts of what can go wrong in
the justice system--the juvenile justice system, is very
telling about how much needs to be done. Can you share with us
how prevalent abuse is in residential youth facilities? As a
followup, let me just--so you can deal with it right away is
does prevalence differ depending on the type of facility?
For example, a juvenile facility, a facility housing foster
youth?
Mr. Davis. Thank you, ma'am. I think that----
Chairwoman Bonamici. Is your microphone on?
Mr. Davis. Is my mic on? I think it is, yes. Abuse is one
of those things that is hard to quantify. There is mental
abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse. My experience in
the system in having been in this work for over 20 years is
that in tightly held facilities, especially detention, is where
I have seen and experienced most of that abuse.
Part of that is because we have staff that are trained for
command and control, not to manage young people in a way that
really does address their needs in their moments of trauma, and
so when they have responses in detention where responses are
reactive, every time a young person is responding to something
that may be traumatic, there is a physical response.
I have found myself having to call the police on staff in
facilities for doing what they thought was the right thing, but
clearly was not the right thing for the young folks that we
serve. When we get into congregant care, and we get into
residential, a lot of these things all boil down to having
staff that are prepared, trained and screened for the work that
they do.
Too often across our systems, across the Nation, the folks
that are doing this work are low paid, and low trained. For
example, in Kentucky when I was Commissioner the base
expectation for our front-line workers was a high school
equivalency.
I have a GED. I understand how important that was to give
me a step up out of my delinquency and other challenges, but it
was not enough to make me--to prepare me to do important work
for children and families in crisis.
We do not invest enough in training those folks, in
screening out initially individuals who might be dangerous, but
in training folks so that they understand trauma responsive
care, hope infused ideology, in a way that allows them to see
the young people they serve as more than criminals who should
be reminded of their worst choices on their worst day, and I
think that abuse stems from that. Thank you.
Ms. Leger Fernandez. Thank you, Mr. Hasan. I just wanted to
be able to ask a question also of Mrs. Burton, especially
around the importance of mental health justice involving youth.
What would a holistic healthy continuum of care for youth in
the juvenile system as well as the residential care systems
look like if you could share your description of what that
would look like?
Ms. Burton. Thank you. I think a healthy, holistic
continuum of care would include early access that does not
require a family or a child to go through an invasive system to
get the help that they need.
Here coming up in July the National Three Digit Mental
Health Crisis Line, 988, will be coming onboard, and hopefully
that will lead to more communities where a response to mental
health crisis is not a police response, but it is a response of
professionals who have the skills to help provide a young
person and their family with what they need at that time.
As we build out that crisis continuum where we have mobile
response, crisis stabilization, in home family services,
ideally fewer families are needing higher interventions to move
forward and be healthy. We are talking specifically about out
of home care, like residential interventions, you know as I
think many of us have said certainly secure detention is not
the best place to provide any sort of rehabilitation for young
people, but community-based programs close to home and
community, that maintain community ties, and that build strong
relationships, children heal in relationships, that build
strong relationships with young people, those are the programs
that are effective and have proven outcomes.
Ms. Leger Fernandez. Thank you. I have some other questions
about the amount of funding that goes in, and whether we should
be looking at repurposing some of these facilities, especially
as you both mentioned that sometimes the detention facilities
themselves are not the best place. I shall submit those in
writing since my time has expired, and Madam Chairwoman I yield
back.
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you. I next recognize Mr.
Thompson from Pennsylvania for 5 minutes for your questions.
Mr. Thompson. Madam Chair, thank you very much. Thank you,
Ranking Member for this hearing. Thank you to all the witnesses
for bringing your expertise and your experience here in this
incredibly important topic, and giving us the opportunity to
examine the effectiveness of various programs aimed at keeping
local communities safe, and setting at-risk youth on the
pathway to success.
It is critical Congress continue to provide vigorous
oversight of current programs such as the Office of Juvenile
Justice, and delinquency preventions Youth Mentoring Grant,
which supports mentoring to vulnerable children in all 50
states. Youth mentoring has a proven track record to boost a
child's self-esteem, academic performance, and peer
connections, while also lowering drug usage, violence,
depressant symptoms, and delinquent behavior.
While the results of this program have been encouraging, we
must always be vigilant in continuing to look for new ways to
assist these children by providing them a safe, nurturing
environment in which they can achieve their fullest potential.
As co-chair of the bipartisan Career and Technical Education
Caucus, I have witnessed first-hand the vast benefits of
getting children involved, youth involved, in vocational and
job training at a young age.
There is an apparent skills gap in this country with an
estimated roughly 11 and a half million jobs open, available in
America today, and we do not have enough skilled workers to
fill these high-paying, high-quality job opportunities. It is
my firm believe as CTE gives earners of all ages, all
backgrounds, all life experiences the ability to succeed and to
restore rungs on the ladder of opportunity.
Mr. Loux, my first question is for you. In your testimony
you noted Rawhide youth services provides vocational education
and experiences to help adapt troubled youth toward a stable
and sustained career in the workforce. In your experience, what
have been some of the benefits that you have seen from engaging
teenagers, young adults in this type of education? What are the
outcomes for those who participate in hands on learning
programs compared to those who do not participate?
Mr. Loux. Thank you for that question, Mr. Thompson. We
have found that having work experience is going to be critical
to having a successful adult life, particularly if you are 16
to 18 years old, getting a job, and keeping a job is critical.
We found huge issues because of their backgrounds they have a
hard time getting a job, and we found among our population 50
percent of the at-risk youth that we serve actually do not
believe that they can even get a successful job or career.
They cannot imagine what the job would look like. First and
foremost is presenting to them life skills and opportunities.
We work with Goodwill, and some other programs in order to do
that, so we have found it to be effective one, to get them into
life skills, getting a resume, helping them get a job, and if
you can get a job and keep a job for 3 years there is a high
likelihood you will not get back into the system again.
Mr. Thompson. All right, thank you. I was proud to work
with and to lead the reauthorization of the Perkins Act, and we
have a title within the most recent Perkins, which provides
funding for career and technical education. It was a specific
title for those preparing those returning citizens, those who
are incarcerated, back into the community. Has your program
been able to tap in to access any of the Perkins support?
Mr. Loux. You know what, I am not familiar with that. I
will have to get back to you on that.
Mr. Thompson. Okay.
Mr. Loux. Yes, most of the ones that we are going to work
with are going to be juveniles, but I am not sure if we have
been able to access that or not, so I will followup. Thank you.
Mr. Thompson. I look forward to connecting with you too
because if not, that is something we need to look at. Ms.
Burton, it is great to have a fellow Penn Stater on the panel.
The same question to you, in your organization's experience
in--all the organizations that you have had experience with,
which has been very vast, helping thousands of young adults,
what benefit, and outcomes have you seen from those
participating in career and technical educational programs?
Ms. Burton. Thank you for that question. We are, we have
seen a difference. So many programs across the country are
providing some type of vocational training. To the point that
was just made, often what providers are seeing is that a job is
not enough, that there is a need for housing supports, and
other sorts of social and emotional supports because we are
talking about young people.
If they have been to a residential intervention, and they
have a mental health diagnosis, there are other needs to help
them be successful. I do have a specific example of a program
called Bonnie Bray.
They serve children in New Jersey's system of care, and
they provide vocational training, and they have done some
outcomes studies, so when they looked at 3-year outcomes for
children who participated in the vocational program versus
children that did not, they noted that there were higher
positive outcomes with school attendance, with employment, with
no further contact with the juvenile justice system, and with
reduced substance use.
We know that it makes a difference. I think in general what
we really could use is more funding to support a rigorous
evaluation, and ongoing research around all these topics, so
that we really can drill down and get them into the literature,
what is effective, and what really are the components that make
a real difference in any of these sorts of programs.
Mr. Thompson. Very good. Thank you, thank you to all the
witnesses, and Madam Chair.
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. I now
recognize the chairman of the full Education and Labor
Committee, Mr. Scott from Virginia.
Mr. Scott. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mrs. Burton, one of the
goals of the JJDPA is to protect children incarcerated,
particularly from adults, what is the compliance with the core
requirements of JJDPA?
Mrs. Burton. Thank you, Chairman Scott. Compliance with the
core requirements of JJDPA are key. Separation from adults,
sight and sound separation, if children are placed in adult
facilities, decarceration, so removing children, making sure
that children are not being placed in adult facilities.
The core compliance also include as has been talked about
identifying and reducing racial and ethnic disparities, and in
general making sure that we are preventing delinquency for
children. All of that compliance is monitored by the Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
As was mentioned earlier in the hearing, I think guidance
coming of out OJJDP will help states more effectively be
responsive to those compliance measures. Lots of good stuff is
happening, and we just need more support to make more happen.
Mr. Scott. Well, what is the rate of compliance now? Is it
good, bad, or indifferent?
Ms. Burton. I think I would say my personal opinion in D.C.
our compliance is great, but I would say overall when guidance
is not clear from the oversight agency it makes it difficult
for states to know what to do. As guidance is more clear, we
now have an OJJDP administrator. All of that will make a
difference in helping these states comply.
Mr. Scott. What about status defenses being, locking up
status defenders?
Ms. Burton. We do know, and I think I included it in my
written testimony, that particularly in private facilities that
we still have too many children who are being locked away for
crimes that would not be a crime if they were not a juvenile,
so running away, truancy, elimination of the valid court order
exception, which allows Judges to put a child in secure
detention for things that are not actual crimes, eliminating
that exception would go a long way toward reducing confinement
for children.
Mr. Scott. Thank you. Mr. Davis, you mentioned the
importance of arts, and things like that. Can you--and you also
mentioned the school to prison pipeline, I would like to refer
to it as the children's defense fund does, as the cradle to
prison pipeline because there are things you can do even before
school that can adjust that curve and get people in the cradle
to college and a career.
Can you talk about the importance of school extracurricular
activities that give children constructive things to do with
their time, and meaningful interactions with adults and summer
activities?
Mr. Davis. Yes, I can. Thank you, chairman. Out of school
time, and extracurricular activities for young people are
pivotal in ensuring they have access to social emotional
engagement that allows them to navigate especially difficult
times. I think young people who are experiencing poverty,
experiencing some of the other indicators in our communities of
challenge really do benefit more from having access to these
things that are controlled in school, in controlled
environments that allow them to practice and to engage in the
skills, particularly the arts.
We are talking about workforce, and vocation. One of the
things that struck me as Commissioner, was having a
conversation with business folks who say we actually can teach
any young person to do whatever we do. We can make the widget.
We cannot teach them to be kind. We cannot teach them to be
good partners and team members. We cannot teach them to manage
self, but the arts, and all of those engagements, mentoring,
all of those kinds of engagements that happen around young
people in school and out of school time really create the
foundation that allow them then to transition into meaningful
work, meaningful education, meaningful careers and community
opportunities.
I think that the core, being able to support young people I
think that is where I get concerned with delinquency
prevention. It should just be youth enrichment. There should be
a broader, nondeficit title in what we do for all young people
to ensure they are prepared to matriculate into our
communities.
Mr. Scott. Thank you. In the few seconds I have left, can
you tell me what role seclusion and restraint should have?
Mr. Davis. None.
Mr. Scott. Thank you. I yield back.
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you, very much Mr. Chairman. I
now recognize Mr. Fitzgerald from Wisconsin for 5 minutes for
your questions.
Mr. Fitzgerald. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Loux, it is
good to see you. I was so excited to see that you would be here
today presenting. I think for my colleagues on the committee it
is hard to explain really the impact that Rawhide has had on
the State of Wisconsin, and the legendary efforts that Bart and
Sherry Starr put forth to help with the organization.
As a matter of fact, I think the story is true that Bart
Starr donated the corvette that he won as MVP of Super Bowl 2
to Rawhide to get the organization up and off the ground. I
think that is true.
Mr. Loux. That is absolutely correct.
Mr. Fitzgerald. All right. Very good, very good. You know
there is kind of this phrase now that is used in education,
which is children at-risk. It is probably a very you know
specific type of description for somebody that Rawhide,
especially for youth--male youth that were in trouble I guess
is the way it used to be described.
One of the things I think that is critical is that the
group of kids that you serve, how they interact with the K-12
system, and can you describe kind of what the involvement that
Rawhide has with the formal educational system?
Mr. Loux. Yep. I am going to speak from a historical
perspective as a residential program where kids are pulled out
of the local schools because they are here at Rawhide for 24/7,
and we have our own school--a fully accredited Star Academy
that they can get a high school degree from. In fact, two are
graduating I believe today in my absence, which is fantastic.
We also have a group home that actually the kids go to
school in New London, so a local high school. Then we work with
them, but they live on campus and help with the support system
around them, and we are currently providing mental health
therapy for 20 area schools, and soon to be in the 30's, so
we're 20 today, and the demand is so high that we're going to
be in another 10 to 15 schools beginning August/September for a
start standpoint.
The education system is a key component, and we have seen
that with the mental health challenges, particularly the COVID,
it has just put an exclamation point on, is we need to be there
in the schools, and the education system is a critical
component.
One last thing, when we look at education is we have found
that there is about 10 to 15 percent of those that are in all
of our area schools that are not qualified, do not qualify for
the job training work experience programs because their grades
are too low, they are trying to get them to graduate, they have
truancy issues. The very ones that need to get a job and keep a
job, so developing unique programs to help them is a key focus
of ours that we are working with key partners in order to
address them in the public schools.
Mr. Fitzgerald. Right. That is oversimplified, but there
was another thing that emerged in my many years in the State
legislature that continue to come up, and that was literacy. If
you had a kid that could not read, that somehow fell through
the cracks within the system, and you know second, third,
fourth, grade. Suddenly they are behind.
Mr. Loux. Yes.
Mr. Fitzgerald. I mean it is so predictable where that kid
is headed in the future. I am wondering is that something that
you guys have also identified?
Mr. Loux. It is seen absolutely. We may get a 15-to 16-
year-old that is reading or writing at a fourth-grade level.
That is not uncommon. When they come to Rawhide for a
residential program we have major programs to accelerate their
learning, their basic academic skills, and recover the credit,
and it is amazing how much progress can be made in four, six, 9
months' time in order to get kids that had no chance of
graduation to end up with a high school diploma.
Mr. Fitzgerald. Just real quickly as I am running out of
time, and for my benefit, and the benefit of the other
committee members, you guys have unique structure when it comes
to fund raising as well, so I do not want the committee members
to think that this was all just done with government subsidies,
or the private sector stuff, and what you guys do to market has
been phenomenal as well.
Mr. Loux. We believe in partnership with the public private
partnership. Only 50 percent of our funding actually comes from
government sources and insurance reimbursements. The other 50
percent comes from individuals in the community that donate
their money, they donate their time, and it's a significant
investment.
Why is this important? Not just for the funding, which is
great, but this means we have thousands of individuals in our
communities that care about these kids. They are from the
communities, they are giving back to the communities, and it is
really combining, public, private partnership in a unique way,
and because of our history we have been able to do so.
You mentioned Bart and Cherry Starr, well Bart Jr. Cherry
actually helped us 2 weeks ago we just built a new three and a
half million-dollar home that will house the boys on our
campus, and that was 100 percent paid for by the community, and
they helped us raise the money. It was just a fantastic
partnership between the State of Wisconsin in all different
sectors.
Mr. Fitzgerald. Thanks. A phenomenal story. I am glad you
were here today. Thanks, I yield back.
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you. I now recognize Dr. Foxx,
the Ranking Member of the full committee for 5 minutes for your
questions.
Chairwoman Foxx. Thank you, Madam Chairman and Mr. Loux,
thank you so much for being here, and explaining to people what
a stellar program that you have, and I want to join my
colleague from Wisconsin in commending you. I think the last
point you just made is so critical. Half of your funding is
coming from private donations because the people in the
community see what you are doing. You are being held
accountable to the people in the community.
You are proving your model to them, and they will support
it. What our colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to
do is they want to fund everything through the Federal
Government, and have Washington bureaucrats control these
things, and that is so wrong because we know what works, what
makes public schools work is a good principle, and good
teachers, and people held accountable at the local level.
Thank you so much for proving the model in what you're
doing. I do have a couple of questions. You mentioned that for
the programs to be effective they need to have professionals in
their fields doing their work. You talked about that, meaning
real educators, real counselors, and real therapists.
Can you explain why that--a little bit more, you mentioned
it before, why that is important and how your group has worked
to make that happen?
Mr. Loux. Yes. As a theme for all of us is that for being
able to treat and help, and educate these youth, it is going to
require professionally trained staff. Why? The ones that come
to our residential program on average they have four mental
illness diagnoses, and they have been in and out of the Court
system for years.
You are going to need people who are actually trained in
how do you work with that group? How do you help educate them?
How do you help get them on a course that is to be effective
and rehabilitative, requires people who are trained to work
with this type of youth, and so that is where this is not just
anybody that can do this work. These are people that are
unbelievably dedicated, mission minded, care about these youth,
but also professionals in their field.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you. We will have a little conversation
later about the T word you used. You really want educated
people in the field, but we can talk about that later. It is
sort of an inside joke here. Mr. Loux, your organization has
expanded beyond residential treatment. You have again alluded
to it a little bit. Can you discuss why you made the change?
Further, can you discuss how it helps you stay connected to
former participants in the program?
Mr. Loux. Yes. As we talked about the continuum of youth,
so think about it from the time they are 11, 12, 13, to the
time they are early adults, and launched successfully to be an
adult, there is a lot of change that is going on. Very little
of that is in out of home placement. On average our youth stay
four to 6 months, which means there is very little that can be
done there.
What is important is working with the families and the
youth, and the system within the communities to prevent and
divert them from coming into the system, but in that rare
instance where we need them, getting them back into the system,
getting them healthy so that they can go back and return home.
What is also critical is that this is not a handoff. This
is an integration. When a youth comes, we work with their
families every week. There is contact every week with the
families, and when they go back it is not just thrown back to
the communities, it is staying with them for months and months
to integrate them into their families, their social systems,
and their schools in order to be effective over the long term.
Ms. Foxx. Again, you are proving models that have worked in
other places. For many years, I worked with a program in North
Carolina near where I live where they worked with the families,
they worked with severely abused kids, and it was not just the
students left the residential program, but they had the
families.
While the students were there they worked with the
families. When the students left, they worked with the families
for long periods of time. You are doing evidence based
programing, and I think it is so important. We have talked
about that. We have been talking about it a little bit here,
but what you are doing are the right things to do.
God bless you for what you are doing. Thank you. I yield
back, Madam Chair.
Mr. Loux. Thank you.
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you, Dr. Foxx. We have no more
members to ask questions. I want to remind my colleagues that
pursuant to committee practice materials for submission to the
hearing record must be submitted to the committee clerk within
14 days following the last day of the hearing, so by close of
business on May 31, 2022, preferably in Microsoft Word format.
The materials submitted must address the subject matter of
the hearing, and only a member of the subcommittee, or an
invited witness may submit materials for inclusion in the
hearing record. Documents are limited to 50 pages each.
Documents longer than 50 pages will be incorporated into
the record via an internet link that you must provide to the
committee clerk within the required timeframe, but please
recognize that in the future the link might not work.
Pursuant to House rules and regulations, items for the
record should be submitted to the clerk electronically by
emailing submissions to [email protected].
Again, I want to thank all of the witnesses today for their
participation. Members of the subcommittee may have some
additional questions for you. We ask the witnesses to please
respond to those questions in writing.
The hearing record will be held open for 14 days in order
to receive those responses. I remind my colleagues that
pursuant to committee practice, witness questions for the
hearing record must be submitted to the majority committee
staff, or committee clerk within 7 days, and the questions
submitted must address the subject matter of the hearing.
I now recognize the distinguished Ranking Member for a
closing statement.
Mr. Fulcher. Madam Chair, thank you very much. Just very
briefly, I want to just thank those who participated today.
Some of the things that we deal with are more pleasant than
others, and the outcomes that happen are largely--at least the
positive ones, are largely a function of the work that you do,
and there is nothing more important to this country than the
next generation and the future with these kids.
For those who have a heart to do it, please know that you
are appreciated because not all of us have that gift. You do,
and I want you to just share appreciation and underscore the
importance of the work that you do. Madam Chair, thank you for
the opportunity to close, and I yield back.
Chairwoman Bonamici. Thank you, Ranking Member Fulcher. I
now recognize myself for the purpose of making a closing
statement. I want to thank our witnesses again for taking the
time to be with us today.
One of our most basic responsibilities we have as Members
of Congress, and in fact one of the most meaningful acts we can
take, is to make it possible for every child in America to lead
a healthy and productive life.
We have some work to do. Unfortunately, as we heard today
far too many children are continuing to be put in juvenile
detention facilities, congregate care facilities, and other out
of home placements that may leave them at increased risk of
experiencing trauma. At the same time, inadequate resources,
and insufficient oversight have allowed Juvenile Courts to fall
short of their promise to help our Nation's youth.
We cannot fulfill our responsibility to put children's best
interests first, if juvenile justice and child welfare systems
ultimately funnel young people into the criminal justice
system, or needlessly separate them from their families and
homes.
Today's hearing was an important reminder of the concrete
steps we must take to make sure we do provide every child in
America with the protections and support they need to succeed.
I hope we can all agree that this is a goal worth fighting for.
I look forward to working with all of my colleagues to help
America's young people thrive, not just with words, but with
meaningful actions.
Thank you to the witnesses for helping us today understand
our work that we have to do, and I look forward to working with
everyone on this very important issue. Thank you again for your
witnesses and time, and the hearing is now adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:31 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
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