Court Process

Screening & Assessment Tools

Short Screen YLS

• The 20th Circuit, Juvenile Court implemented the Short Screen YLS, to assist the court and prosecuting attorney in making Consent Calendar decisions to steer youth away from formal court processing.
• In keeping with risk assessment driven practices, research strongly suggests juvenile delinquents who score low risk on risk assessments should not be offered a substantial number and/or a significant amount of services.
• In fact, it has been determined if low risk juveniles are offered numerous services, they are more likely to re-offend than if they were not offered these services at all (Latessa & Lowenkamp, 2006).

Youth Level of Service Inventory (YLS)

• The Youth Level of Service Inventory (YLS) is a criminogenic risk prediction assessment, performed post adjudication, every 90 days, and at exit from court supervision.
• The YLS is completed using a semi-structured interview, gathering of surrounding data, and scored through detailed scoring criteria. It describes the juvenile’s current risk for recidivism, based on their current lifestyle.
• It is a third-generation risk assessment measure, meaning it captures static factors (unable to improve – such as prior offense history), dynamic factors (changeable through treatment – such as education needs), and case management opportunities. Scores can range from 0 to 41 with a higher score indicating a higher risk of reoffending.
• The YLS consists of 8 life areas, called domains, including: prior history, family and parenting, education, peer relations, substance abuse, leisure and recreation, personality and behavior, and attitudes and orientations.
• Risk focused decision making recognizes the unique nature of everyone’s delinquency path and that there are risk and needs factors that may increase chances of delinquency.
• The best and most effective programs identify the risk and needs and attempt to match these to appropriate responses.
• Risk refers to the risk of reoffending, not the seriousness of the offense.
• Screening youth is an important process necessary to ensure meaningful case planning while attempting to reduce that youth’s risk to reoffend.
• A validated screening instrument can identify these risk factors and classify youth as low, moderate, or high risk of re-offend.
• Court programming should target areas of risk by utilizing interventions for youth with a higher likelihood of recidivism based on the risk factors. The court should provide the most intensive treatment to higher risk youths and avoid intensive treatment for lower risk youth as it can do more harm than good when it comes to increasing the likelihood of re-offending.
• The Risk Principle suggests that justice system interventions should be matched to offenders’ risk level, focusing more intensive interventions on moderate and high-risk offenders.
• The Need Principle asserts that justice system interventions should target those factors that most significantly influence criminal behavior.
• The Responsivity Principle demonstrates that interventions are most effective when they are based on research-supported models and tailored to the unique characteristics of individual offenders.
• The 20th Circuit, Juvenile Court implemented the YLS, validated criminogenic screening instrument, in December 2013 and in the years following has moved to a risk and needs driven probation decision model (low, moderate, and high) for both case and treatment planning.
• The 20th Circuit, Juvenile Court utilizes a series of matrices developed using the YLS matched with the Continuum of Services offered in Ottawa.
• The matrices serve as a guide to addressing a youth’s criminogenic needs and to refer them to services that align with their most significant need areas, in accordance with their assessed level of risk (low, moderate, and high).

MAYSI – 2

MAYSI – 2 is a brief behavioral health screening tool designed especially for juvenile justice programs and facilities. It identifies youth’s pressing behavioral health needs. Its primary use is in juvenile probation, consent calendar/diversion programs, and intake in juvenile detention.

• Alcohol/Drug Use
• Angry-Irritable
• Depressed-Anxious
• Somatic Complaints
• Suicide Ideation
• Thought Disturbance
• Traumatic Experiences

Currently used during an intake at the juvenile detention center and as a youth is being placed on probation. Will be implemented as part of the intake process with our Intake Juvenile Court Officers.

Intake

• Process petitions sent to the Court. These petitions can cover a variety of criminal and status offenses and can be handled on the consent calendar (informal handling of the case) or on probation (formal handling of the case).
• The prosecutor’s office determines the initial course of action taken with each petition. Court staff will meet with each juvenile and their family face to face and, either sign a consent calendar agreement with the court, or set a date with the court on the formal docket.
  • If responsibility for the offense is denied, a pretrial conference will be scheduled or the matter will be set for adjudication.
  • Cases not resolved at pretrial may be set for trial.
  • Finding of guilt or plea of admission may result in temporary wardship (See Probation).
• Consent calendar agreements (informal processing) include conditions, such as community service, counseling, apology letter, and cognitive behavioral interventions, over a period of time up to 180 days. Upon successful completion of the agreement the juvenile will be discharged with no public record of the offense. If conditions are not completed the case can be escalated to the formal docket which may result in placement on probation.
• Consent calendar is typically used for, but is not limited to, first time offenders and less serious crimes.
• Consent calendar agreements (informal processing) include conditions, such as community service, counseling, apology letter, and cognitive behavioral interventions, over a period of time up to 180 days.

Probation

• A juvenile placed on probation has made a “plea of admission” or been “found guilty” of committing a crime or a status offense.
• In order to determine the case plan a pre-dispositional (pre-sentence) investigation is completed by the Juvenile Court Officer. This includes administering the YLS (Youth Level of Service Inventory) risk assessment tool. The YLS helps determine the level of risk the juvenile poses to the community and which services can be put into place to lower the risk of reoffending.
• Juveniles placed on probation are given a specific set of terms and conditions to which they must adhere or complete before discharge from the court. These conditions may include: community service; attend school; submit to urinalysis, obey the lawful commands of parents, guardians or those in authority; curfew; fines and costs; restitution; counseling and other services or restrictions depending on the crime and needs of the juvenile and his or her family.
• The length of time on probation can vary between warn and dismiss to years, depending on the crime, needs of the juvenile/family, and continued risk level of the juvenile. The case will be reviewed by the court at least every six months.
• A Juvenile Court Officer will coordinate community-based services, ensure compliance with court orders, prepare written court reports for court hearings, make school and home contacts, modify case plans, and more. Probation meetings will be structured in the evidence based EPICS model (Effective Practices in Community Supervision).