CJCA Webinar: Policies, Practices and PbS Outcomes to Reduce Isolation and Room Confinement

Webinar presented on Friday, May 2, 2014

Moderator:
Kim Godfrey, Executive Director, PbS Learning Institute
Presenters:
Peter Forbes, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Youth Services
Judy Davis, PbS State Coordinator, Illinois Department of Corrections, Department of Juvenile Justice Department

As research increasingly points juvenile justice professionals toward incentive-based behavior management systems and away from punitive adult approaches like the use of isolation and room confinement, professionals working day-to-day with the youths are looking for answers: what are the alternatives? This webinar will share a model policy developed by the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services that establishes the use of involuntary room confinement as the last resort when less restrictive interventions have failed and limits the amount of time to the least required. The policy has changed cultures in the secure facilities such that some have completely eliminated the use of isolation/room confinement. The webinar also will share alternative practices, behavior management programs and ideas implemented by the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice to first change the culture to accept and embrace alternatives to isolation/room confinement and then to implement an incentives-based system and hold facilities accountable by data through Performance-based Standards (PbS). Lastly PbS will share its continuous performance measurement data and approach that has worked for the past 20 years to drive best practices, change cultures and help sustain reforms.