Background and Purpose
The Robeson County Juvenile Task Force, RCJTF, is a community effort to provide juvenile intervention before court action becomes necessary. The Task Force is a group of law enforcement juvenile specialists guided by an executive board, coordinated via the Sheriff's Department, and implemented by local police departments. The purpose of the Task Force is to provide a community wide juvenile intervention strategy that focuses on preventing disruptive juvenile behavior in the community and enabling schools to emphasize their educational mission.
This analysis explores the details of the RCJTF as an evolving juvenile intervention strategy that emphasizes pro-action and prevention in middle and high schools. Through this approach, intervention officers are active in the community and seek to prevent juvenile delinquency as their primary goal. It is also important that task force officers have the skill, training and authority to take legal action when necessary. The report examines indicators that show significant dollar savings to the court system and the more important improvement of general social welfare that comes from improving the well being of children. Beyond that the study seeks to understand the RCJTF's essential structure for three reasons. First, the analysis explores details that help the understanding of critical actions and procedures that brought the Task Force to its present level of efficiency and effectiveness. Second, since the program is evolving, there is a need to figure out recommendations that will enhance its chances of continued success and improvement. And lastly, this analysis leads to a general model which, when used and adapted by other communities, will enable them to carry out their own juvenile intervention strategy.
Methods
Traditional and current methods of policy analysis are used in this study. It involved detailed interviews with a cross section of key RCJTF people and reviews of pertinent literature, procedures and data. More specifically, efficiency and effectiveness will be discussed. The questions of efficiency and effectiveness are two basic questions that, when answered, will determine if a project is worthwhile. This analysis first decides if the project is efficient by saving money. Then it determines if the project is effective, that is, whether it has an impact on the community and has general benefit by improving the social well being of Robeson County?
Findings
The Task Force is organized with senior guidance, county wide jurisdiction and hand picked, dedicated officers. This fact makes it very efficient, economical and effective in dealing with juvenile problems. Conservatively, the Task Force saved the juvenile justice court system over $108,000 in court costs alone in 1992. That is money beyond the cost of the 11 Task Force members' salaries. The savings and benefits go much further.
The Task Force can be credited with other positive trends. Training School admissions dropped dramatically in 1992, from a ten-year average of 32 admissions per year to 15 admissions per year. This is a conservative savings of $442,000. One township documents that Breaking and Entering (B&E) incidents dropped dramatically. B&E is one of a police department's most expensive "nonviolent" crimes, considering loss of and damage to property and the expense of investigations. Further, a senior court official estimates that for every ten adjustments , where a juvenile officer keeps a child out of the courts, three days of detention are saved. In 1992, the 11 officers of the Task Force posted 1,171 adjustments which means the county avoided approximately 350 days of detention. At $112 per day for detention, another nearly $40,000 was saved.
The effectiveness of the RCJTF is demonstrated when compared to the prior period when there was no Juvenile Task Force. Before the Task Force, juvenile incidents were often ignored or mishandled. The Task Force not only is bringing to light the true extent and nature of the problem, it also provides a good way to confront it. Currently, juvenile intervention officers keep over 50% of all cases out of the courts by direct intervention or with the aid of communitybased alternatives and services.
The most important benefits accrue to the community when the Task Force facilitates a positive change in a child's life. The many benefits are significant and difficult to calculate but are best summed by the observation of the Red Springs Middle School principal:
"Carl Pearson, (Task Force member) is a major factor if not the factor, we are not distracted by discipline problems and can accomplish our educational mission."
General Conclusions
Juvenile intervention in Robeson County is successful in large part because of Task Force effectiveness. The Task Force displays a manner in which a community can work together to heal its current and future juvenile problems. There are two critical elements to this effectiveness. Basic to initiating the effort was the executive board. Robeson County officials voluntarily organized themselves with the following in mind. Members were selected based on their knowledge and involvement with the juvenile problems in the county. Secondly, members were able to make relevant decisions and support them with policy and resources. Another essential to the board's success was the demonstrated willingness to commit to county-wide action.
The ability of the Task Force to continue the positive influence for the long term lies with the dedicated juvenile intervention officers. The officers must successfully help children. They need to be interested in working with juveniles, well trained (if not experienced) and well equipped. Importantly, the executive board and the intervention officers must support each other with regular, detailed communication.
The strategy shows very good use of federal block grant funds; it is innovative, replicable and measurable. As a strategy, it effectively attacks some of the most troubling social issues, youth crime and violence in schools, in an efficient and positive manner.
Greatest successes happen when each juvenile officer is augmented by close cooperation from schools and human services. Where administrators and teachers from individual schools openly share information about incidents, especially more serious incidents, they are usually prevented. Similarly, the intervention officer is more effective when he or she works effectively with human services agencies in the community and has an open line of communication with them.
Recommendations
Many tasks need to be done to ensure the RCJTF stays viable and improves. Mention will be made of essential actions, internal and external to Robeson County, which are of the most concern.
Internal Actions:
1. Procedures - General procedures or standards for operational details as duties and responsibilities of agencies and agents need to be outlined.
2. Training - A sponsor is needed to design fund and implement a standard curriculum for the intervention specialist.
3. Agreements - Agreements/understandings need to be established to prevent duplication of effort and provide the range of juvenile services specifically needed for Robeson County.
4. Test Site - A single school can be selected to pilot innovative ideas from Task Force members.
5. Tracking - Minimum measures for each agency/group (eg. intervention officers, courts, schools, county) need to be decided and documentation procedures established. The executive board should review the data monthly to maintain an ongoing overview of the process and make any necessary adjustments to keep the project directed to the goal of helping children.
External Actions:
1. Target Dysfunctional Families - Human service agencies can work with local law enforcement to identify the families most in need of available resources.
2. Curriculum Development and Sponsorship - The county needs an outside agency to assist in developing and sponsoring a juvenile intervention specialist training program. This will help qualify and field officers quickly.
3. Funding - The county and townships have made significant tradeoffs to make the Task Force work. They are to the point where external funds are needed to continue the evolution of their work. Long term, they need cost sharing arrangements with agencies that benefit from Task Force operation