Bill would let state share juvenile data

Measure’s goal: Better research data

The Administrative Office of the Courts, under the direction of an Arkansas Supreme Court commission, has been working on an assessment to better treat offenders that enter the juvenile justice system.





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But there's been one major hurdle -- the courts are not allowed access to critical information from the Division of Youth Services, which houses the offenders.

That's why lawmakers are considering a bill -- during the special session that starts today -- that would allow the division to share data, said Connie Tanner, director of court services for the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Tanner said the office received a $500,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the U.S. Department of Justice to develop a risk and needs assessment to help judges decide whether youth offenders should be locked up or diverted to other treatments.

"We do more harm than good when we bring them in our system -- if they're low risk," she said. "Kids are naturally going to screw up, but most kids are going to grow out of it. The trick is trying to figure out which kids are going to grow out of it and which kids have criminal behaviors that you have to work with."

In order to validate that assessment of high- and low-risk offenders, the office needed commitment data from the Division of Youth Services. It first asked for the data in October.

"We had no authority to release it to them," said Amy Webb, a spokesman for the Department of Human Services, which houses the Youth Services Division.

The bill modifies state law "to permit release of juvenile records to a person, agency or organization engaged in bona fide research," according to Gov. Asa Hutchinson's special session call.

The Division of Youth Services determines what sort of research has "value for the evaluation or development of policies to advance juvenile justice," and would release the information under those circumstances.

Webb said the provision would be similar to a circumstance in which the Division of Children and Family Services is allowed to release information on children.

A Section on 05/19/2016

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