NCJ Number
187436
Journal
Prosecutor Volume: 35 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2001 Pages: 31-32,34,36
Date Published
February 2001
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article describes the development and operation of Pima County's (Arizona) S.M.A.R.T. (School Multi-Agency Response Team) program, a collaborative effort to prevent violence in schools.
Abstract
Program founders first wrote a mission statement, so that program goals would be clear in recruiting team members from the ranks of law enforcement, probation officers, and school officials. Juvenile parole officers were later added to the team. Teams were formed along geographic lines. Each of the school districts had several hundred enrolled students who were awaiting prosecution, were victims of crime, or were on probation or parole. The teams developed specific criteria for which juveniles were to be monitored by their respective teams. The juveniles monitored by the teams are those on standard probation or intensive probation who are most likely to reoffend, and juveniles who have not yet been adjudicated delinquent but are at high risk of reoffending based on specified indicators. The teams also select other juveniles for monitoring because of the conduct of their parents or their living situations. Now in its fourth year, the S.M.A.R.T. program has operated to identify the juveniles at risk of committing violence and to provide the supervision and services needed to reduce the likelihood that they will commit a violent act. In the process, the program has dealt with issues of confidentiality while ensuring that the needs of troubled youth are not ignored.