NCJ Number
173705
Journal
Pennsylvania Progress Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: September 1994 Pages: -
Date Published
1994
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Pennsylvania's Minority Confinement Subcommittee has developed a two-pronged program for addressing minority overrepresentation in the State.
Abstract
The Minority Confinement Subcommittee was established by the Juvenile Advisory Committee of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) after the PCCD identified a disproportionate number of minority juveniles entering and penetrating the State's juvenile justice system. The Minority Confinement Subcommittee's two-pronged program for addressing the problem involved the funding of research through the Center for Juvenile Justice Training and Research of the Juvenile Court Judges' Commission to analyze the causes and potential solutions of minority overrepresentation, as well as the simultaneous implementation of initiatives to slow the infiltration of minority youth into the system and ultimately into secure confinement facilities. This paper describes five prevention and intervention programs for minority youth established in Harrisburg and four developed in the 25th police district of Philadelphia. Beyond the formation of individual programs to serve at-risk minority youth, the subcommittee has framed and implemented the Coalition Model. Under this model the Subcommittee has worked with local community agencies to encourage the networking of resources, such that the individual programs in each target area have bonded together to establish formal, self-sufficient coalitions. The subcommittee has identified Allegheny County as the next target area for the implementation of prevention/intervention programs.