Jun 15, 2012
I recently had the pleasure of meeting with Seminole County Sheriff Donald F. Eslinger, who shared with me local efforts to reduce and prevent juvenile delinquency. I am delighted that he is committed to implementing civil citation.
Dear DJJ team members:
Welcome to my weekly letter. Please allow me to share some recent news and announcements.
SEMINOLE COUNTY EFFORTS: I recently had the pleasure of meeting with Seminole County Sheriff Donald F. Eslinger, who shared with me local efforts to reduce and prevent juvenile delinquency. I am delighted that he is committed to implementing civil citation.
The Sheriff’s Office manages the Seminole Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC) along with partners from Human Services Associates (HSA), the Seminole County School Board and DJJ, which serves as the screening entity. HSA provides mental health and substance abuse assessments to youth. The School Board operates the STAY Center, which is a truancy intervention program. The Eugene Gregory Memorial Academy is an alternative school that offers counseling, opportunities for community service work, and a consequence unit for youth who violate probation. Electronic monitoring is used instead of detention placement for many youth alleged to be in violation of their probation or conditional release. Additionally, Operation Right Track is available to parents of youth at risk for delinquency. It teams parents with their children to learn better communication, parenting, life skills and other information. The goal is to improve youth behavior while teaching parents effective skills for dealing with their children.
Many thanks to Sheriff Eslinger and Seminole County. Collaborative efforts like these make communities safer and support the success of at-risk and troubled youth.
CIVIL CITATION UPDATE: Thanks to Eckerd Family Foundation for granting funds to support counties as they implement or improve their civil citation process. The grant will allow stakeholders to visit model civil citation sites to get first-hand experience with best practices, which will in turn facilitate the use of civil citations among youth throughout Florida. Addressing first-time youth offenses through the appropriate use of civil citations improves the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of juvenile justice efforts to help youth to achieve better outcomes and brighter futures.
DJJ GUBERNATORIAL FELLOW SPOTLIGHT: DJJ’s 2011-12 Gubernatorial FellowNicole “Nikki” Blanton, J.D., is a dynamic person. The first person in her family to attend college, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a master’s degree in Public Administration from Florida Atlantic University while working full-time, first for a former legislator and later for the Palm Beach County Clerk & Comptroller. Last month, she graduated from Florida State University’s School of Law. As DJJ’s Gubernatorial Fellow, Nikki assisted me in my role as chair of the Florida Children and Youth Cabinet’s Human Trafficking Workgroup. After this year’s gubernatorial fellowship ended, Nikki agreed to stay and help with the juvenile justice statutes rewrite, along with other special projects. (For more information on the Florida Gubernatorial Fellows program, click here.)
Gov. Rick Scott, Nikki Blanton, First Lady Ann Scott and Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll
Q. Tell me about your work as a gubernatorial fellow.
A. It was an incredible honor to be chosen for the Florida Gubernatorial Fellows program, and then to be placed at the Department of Juvenile Justice. Everyone at DJJ has been open, inclusive and welcoming toward me. I was able to shadow staff in Detention, Residential, Probation and Prevention. I’ve received challenging assignments and participated in state government in ways I would never have had an opportunity to do, if I had not been a Fellow.
For instance, with the guidance of Theda Roberts [DJJ’s civil citation coordinator], I drafted a Juvenile Accountability Block Grant which secured funding that will be used for a three-county pilot project that uses modified screening procedures to identify DJJ youth who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The pilot will incorporate a research-based tool developed by Shared Hope International and implemented in the delinquency system in Clark County, Washington, into a process the Broward County JAC has been using for more than a year. Broward’s current process, developed by the Broward Sheriff’s Office Juvenile Assessment Team, has identified about a dozen girls as suspected victims of commercial sexual exploitation, although only two had been arrested on prostitution charges. These results are similar to the outcome Clark County had using the research-based tool, in which over a three-month period the juvenile detention center found six girls to be confirmed victims of sex trafficking, even though none of the girls was arrested for prostitution.
As a Fellow, it has been very rewarding to help create progress in an emerging area and to aid in your vision to make sex trafficking victimization screening available to DJJ youth. Further, it has been a privilege to collaborate with the FSU Center for the Advancement of Human Rights and Human Trafficking Workgroup members on a Human Trafficking Summit planned for later this year.
Q. You are now helping coordinate our re-write of the juvenile justice statutes. What progress has been made?
A. We have gathered internal input and launched an external website to collect ideas from the public. I have been organizing the feedback for the six workgroups that will focus on different juvenile justice issues. The workgroups, which will start meeting soon, will recommend changes in statutes 984 and 985 to incorporate best practices into law and eliminate redundancies and obsolete provisions. The proposed changes will eventually be submitted to the Legislature for future consideration.
Q. What are your future plans?
A. I’m currently studying to take the Florida Bar exam in late July. Other than my work for DJJ, that absorbs all my time right now. The one thing I am certain of is that I intend to continue in public service.
AFTER SCHOOL SNACKS: Beginning July 1, DJJ will offer after school snacks to youth in state-operated facilities. The cost will be defrayed by reimbursement from the National School Lunch Program. To qualify, programs must provide snacks that meet federal guidelines in a supervised environment along with regularly scheduled educational or enrichment activities. Therefore, snacks will be served during programs such as life skills groups. For each after-school snack, DJJ will receive $0.76 in federal reimbursement, with annual funding estimated at approximately $219,640.00. DJJ continues to explore cost effective ways to provide and promote nutritionally beneficial food choices.Thanks to DJJ Dietitian Jamie Burch, R.D., L.D., for developing the implementation plan for facilities.
PROBATION KUDOS: Congratulations to former DJJ Assistant Secretary Darryl Olson and Assistant Secretary for Probation and Community Intervention Michael McCaffrey on the pending publication of their article, "Right-Sizing the Continuum of Residential Services for Youthful Offenders: Florida's Response to a Challenging Economic Environment" in the fall 2012 issue of Juvenile and Family Justice Today. I look forward to reading it!
We are making steady progress in reforming juvenile justice in Florida. To all employees, thank you for your hard work to make this happen. To all dads, best wishes for Father’s Day this Sunday.
Sincerely,
Wansley Walters
Secretary
PS: Please send any noteworthy or newsworthy items for consideration in my weekly letter to Communications Director C. J. Drake at cj.drake@djj.state.fl.us or call 850.921.5905. Submissions are considered on a space-available basis and may be edited for clarity and length. Thank you for your cooperation.