MISSION & PURPOSE OF THE CENTERS Judge Steven C. Teske founded the Child Welfare Policy Centers to address the problem of abuse, neglect, and delinquency, especially involving at-risk or delinquent youth with a history of abuse and neglect.  These youth, also referred to as “cross-over” youth, often find themselves caught in two systems, child welfare and juvenile justice, that oftentimes fight over who is responsible for the youth.  The CWPC provides technical assistance to courts and child-serving agencies that seek to improve their systems to better serve children, youth, families, and the community, including social services, juvenile justice, mental health, education, juvenile prosecutors and defenders, and other relevant agencies.   The CWPC currently provides technical assistance in the areas of juvenile detention alternatives, reducing racial and ethnic disparity (or Disproportionate Minority Contact known also as DMC), zero tolerance policy reform and educational advocacy (school to prison pipeline reform), effective representation of children and youth in dependency and delinquency proceedings, prevention and treatment of cross-over youth, evidence-based practices for improving delinquency systems and reducing recidivism among youth, developing a system of care for local communities, and other strategies promoting effective child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

IMPROVING SYSTEMS TO BENEFIT CHILDREN, YOUTH, & THE FAMILY The CWPC was created by Judge Teske as a vehicle to share with other jurisdictions and stakeholders the tools acquired and developed by Judge Teske, with the help of his local stakeholders, to improve child welfare and juvenile justice in Clayton County Georgia.  The concept originated after numerous requests by colleagues, child-serving professionals, and child advocates to create a website to easy access the information for improving systems, enhance the proliferation of better strategies, and afford persons interested in improving systems in their respective venues to make contact and request assistance.  Just as many others before Judge Teske have developed innovative strategies and made them available to him, Judge Teske believes that it is his responsibility to pass it on.   Beginning in 2000, Judge Teske, with the support of his judicial colleagues and administration of the court, began implementing various strategies to reconfigure the systems of the juvenile court in Clayton County using an INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS APPROACH, or commonly referred to as collaboration, to promote a detention alternative system.  This model is discussed in detail within this site, but suffice it to say that the practices implemented have reduced detention of youth by 44%, including a reduction in minority confinement by 30%, and a reduction in recidivism among probationers by up to 50%.  These practices, taken collectively, is the Juvenile Detention Alternative Program (JDAI or known also as FAST-START for Finding Alternatives for Safety & Treatment-Stabilization Through Assessment, Rehabilitation & Treatment). This program was inspired by the Annie E. Casey Foundation Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI) for which Clayton County is a participating site.  Go to www.aecf.org for more information. Clayton County Juvenile Court's participation in JDAI has inspired Judge Teske to implement existing evidence-based practices and develop new ones that include, but is not limited to, detention assessment systems, risk and needs assessment systems, school referral reduction & school safety program, failure-to appear locator program, school-based probation, detention alternative programming, single point of entry assessment and system of care, strategies for improving effective representation of youth in delinquency proceedings, graduated responses (sanctions and awards), multi-disciplinary detention review panels, diversion, strategies for reducing recidivism, and other tools and programs.  Alternatives to detention are also applicable to cases involving dependency, or those children at risk for abuse and neglect and subject to removal by police or court order. Children removed from their family undergo a traumatic experience that can be harmful in a number of ways.  Thus, removal should only be necessary if remaining in the home, even with services, presents a serious risk of harm to the child.  And if removal is necessary, systems should be in place to ensure the child is placed in the most family-like setting and protected from harm. Using the Interactive Systems Approach, Clayton County reconfigured the institutional and agency systems and operations in the handling of certain abuse and neglect cases to promote the placement of removed children with safe relatives, and to reduce the arrest of parents in those cases in which services provided to the family outweigh the benefits, if any, of criminal prosecution.  These practices, and others, have been of great interest to others in the field of juvenile justice and child welfare, which gave rise to the creation of this site at the request of many juvenile justice and child welfare practitioners, including citizens and volunteers, interested in detention reform and other evidence-based practices. .

BALANCE AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE Finally, the implementation of these practices were made within the context of the "Balanced and Restorative Justice" principles.  The concept of placing public safety first by placing emphasis on the restoration of the victim while simultaneously increasing the competence of the offender so he or she will not re-offend and victimize again is the goal of every community.  The Juvenile Court of Clayton County, for example, is a participant in "Peace-making Circles" which is a tool employed by Native Americans to resolve conflict, and has proven to be very effective in the mediation of certain delinquent cases and especially offenses occuring on school property.  This tool and others are under study to determine how effective these strategies are in addressing delinquency and dependency issues. We hope this site proves informative and if further information is needed, or you would like to inquire about receiving technical assistance on matters of detention reform or other practices described in this site, please contact us by going to the "Contact Us" page using the menu toolbar above.