I. Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 10:12 AM.
II. Roll Call:
Commissioners: Patrick Nelson, Gene Griffin, Rick Velasquez, Lisa Jacobs, Julie Biehl, Esther Franco-Payne, Arnetra Jackson, Dana Weiner, Veronica Dixon; By phone: George Hill, Jacqueline Bullard, Chairman Timberlake and Rod Ahitow. Quorum present.
Staff: Ron Smith, Dick Walsh, Jeff Bradley, Rob Vickery, Miguel Millett, Michelle Arnold, Karrie Rueter, Julie Stremlau, Lin Ferguson;
Guests: Erica Hughes, Theo Chapman, Lisa Dadavo, Liliya Shmuylovskaya, YNC Intern, Donna Taylor.
III. Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve minutes was made by Commissioner Velasquez, seconded by Commissioner Griffin. All in favor. None opposed. January 18th Minutes approved.
IV. Status of Funds:
Title II and Title V: Commissioner Jacobs discussed contract funding for SFY13. The Planning & Grants Committee approved DHS to begin the funding process for the current grants. Commissioner George Hill questioned if the Commission is locked into the grants. The answer is that it is possible to change funding levels, but to stop funding a contract a 2/3 majority of the Commission is required. The three year contract with Youth Network Council can only be canceled if we lose funding.
A. Domestic Battery Program:
Sites for the program are DuPage County, Cook County through YOS and Peoria County through the Children’s Home Association of Illinois. Existing programs are being structured and their sites will continue to be monitored for progress.
B. DJJ Case Management :
Allows DJJ to expend currently granted funds
C. Transportation Site Grants:
Will continue to assess the overall impact of program termination and determine further action.
D. DOC/Compliance monitoring and reporting
E. ICJIA:
Continued data reporting and work
F. Youth Network Council:
Allow us to contract as anticipated through contract established last year.
G. CPRD:
Maintenance of JMIS and allow flexibility to ask them to continue data analysis and reporting. We will be determining the specific deliverables and award amounts for these contracts as we go through the fiscal year.
V. Reentry Request for Proposals:
Status and Next Steps: Commissioner Velasquez recused himself from this discussion/vote. Commissioner Jacobs presented the recommendation for funding from the Planning and Grants Committee. Rob Vickery reported the methodology for selection of proposals selected.
Process: Rob presented the format of approaching this process. The RFP was released December 19, 2011, 51 letters of intent were received. Bidders’ conferences were held January 5th and 12th 2012. We received 23 proposals on January 23, 2012.Scoring: DHS staff, Commissioners, DJJ staff reviewed and scored and Rob Vickery met with team leaders to discuss scoring. Rating: Scoring and key elements were reviewed at the Planning and Grants meeting to make a decision on funding to present to the Commission. The plan is to have funding in place by mid April with services available by mid June. Commissioners received a document with a summary and all of the comments made by the reviewers. Two proposals were selected for funding. If the Commission approves the selection, we will go into a protest period, and if there are no protests, the contracts will be issued by mid April.
In Cook County, the proposal with the highest overall score was Youth Outreach Services (YOS). YOS serves one of the most highly populated service areas for DJJ youth. The number of youth being paroled back into the Youth Outreach Services service area is 190 and they plan to serve 85 youth per year. The second place application, Aunt Martha’s Youth Services was also discussed. They serve South Suburban Cook and it is also a densely populated area, but the need isn’t as great as the YOS service area. Commissioner Jacobs made a motion to approve Reentry funding for YOS. Committee motion, no second necessary. All in favor. None opposed. Commissioner Velasquez abstained. Motion passed. The downstate proposal with the highest overall score was Children’s Home and Aid Society of Illinois in Madison County. They propose to serve St. Clair and Madison Counties. 25 youth per year, which is lower than the current number paroled, with a budget of $150,000 per year. Their proposal displayed a very rich planning process which included the parole agents and shows a good working relationship with the parole staff and other key community players. The second highest rated downstate proposal was Chestnut and seemed to be highly behaviorally health focused. Commissioner Griffin motioned to approve Reentry funding for CHAIL. Committee motion, no second necessary.All in favor, none opposed. Commissioner Velasquez abstained. Motion carried.
VI. 3-Year Plan Development:
Status and Next Steps: Commissioner Jacobs presented the Planning and Grants recommendation. The plan is required for funding. The due date is May 7, 2012. Commissioners have volunteered to edit certain portions of the report. Boiler Plate – Commissioner Weiner; Structure and Function – Chairman Timberlake; Analysis of current crime problems – Commissioner Weiner; Priority Needs and Problem Statement – Commissioners Velasquez, Rodriguez and Biehl; DSO Compliance Plan, Separation Compliance Plan, Jail Removal Plan and the Compliance Monitoring Plan – Commissioner Velasquez; DMC Core Requirement Plan – Commissioner Pam Rodriguez; Coordination of Abuse, Neglect and Delinquency Program – Chairman Timberlake; Collecting and Sharing JJ Information – Commissioner Weiner; Statements of the Problem and Program Narrative that describe broadly what we plan to do with resources over the next three years – Commissioners Pam Rodriguez, Velasquez, Biehl and Franco-Payne. Commissioner Griffin motioned to approve authorization to finalize and submit the three year plan according to the above process by May 7, 2012. Commissioner Biehl seconded the motion. All in favor. None opposed. No abstentions. Motion carries.
VII. Program / Project Reports:
Process and Timeline
A. Parole Study Update:
Chairman Timberlake reported the working group and Executive Study have continued to work by meeting with Representative Gabel and the Juvenile Justice Initiative (JJI). The Governor’s Office, IDJJ and PRB have been presented with the plan, but have not met in person to date. Commissioner Biehl reported that she received an update recently and wants to prepare a response. The initial parole period of 6-12 months rather than a standard period of time for every parolee is the change recommended.
An extension of a parole requires a burden on DJJ to prove that the youth has not substantially complied with the requirements of parole and that other significant needs, on behalf of the youth, have not been met. DJJ could request an extension of 1-12 months. How revocation and extension correlate still has to be worked out. To this date concentration has been on parole and not revocation. This allows focus for the kids who need more help and approaches an evidence-based practice. It interrelates with the Governor’s plan to close two facilities. A fact sheet will be available in the near future for public education. The approved language from Governor’s Office, DJJ and PRB will be added to the Shell Bill and then sent through the General Assembly.
B. Raise the Age:
Waiting to hear from AOIC, and if we don’t get the information needed, we may have to change our plan of action. This will be discussed in further detail at the Communications Meeting on March 22, 2012.
C. Juvenile Sex Offender:
2008-2010 file review from 8 counties is ongoing with law students using a standardized form obtained from the parole board. The data set includes the type of charge, age, and county. The literature review is in process with CPRD and Commissioners will be invited to participate in that the review. Anita Weinberg from Loyola, Commissioner Jacobs and law students met with Senator Millner and Kristin Julian to change the statute to reflect best practices. They want to ensure that law enforcement and legislators understand the topic of juvenile sex offenders thoroughly and are pulling back other legislation for revision.
VIII. Committee Updates/Motions for Consideration:
A. Communications Committee:
Next meeting is March 22, 2012. The Committee is in the process of working with sub-committees to complete the annual report. All of the subcommittee reports have been received and are included in the report. Reformatting and adding a perspective of juvenile justice in Illinois. The draft will be ready in two weeks after the Communications Committee has reviewed and updated. Communications Committee met with YNC concerning youth engagement and YNC is working on a plan that will be ready in a couple of months. Distribution of Annual Report will be discussed at meeting tomorrow.
B. BARJ Committee:
There is renewed interest at Harrisburg in Circle Training and if approved by the Commission.
C. DMC Committee:
Assessment is moving forward using Tracker Software from the counties. They continue to obtain consent from the counties and have 16 of 21 counties. The contract with Solutions Specialties is ready for finalization. A Professor of Criminology at Western Illinois University has agreed to allow college interns to manually collect data on the ground where Tracker software is not available. Erica Hughes reported that the data collection is the biggest part of the study and an extensive process. CPRD is doing the qualitative portion with surveys and interviews. Commissioners Biehl and Franco-Payne asked about the questions to be used in the qualitative portion and timelines. Miguel will forward to the Commissioners the timelines and questions under consideration for use in the survey.
D. Executive Committee:
Parole reform was topic of conversation.
E. JDAI / Detention Committee:
Nothing actionable for the Commission, but there are four items for the Commission’s awareness. 1) Phasing out the transportation grants over a 3 year period continues. They will be examining the data very closely because of concerns about unintended consequences in some of the areas served. Susan Witkin has been invited to attend upcoming meetings to help clarify the data. 2) $29,000 from Casey Funding which goes through YNC to be used for the nine jurisdictions survey data collection. Youth Network Council has been waiting 12 months for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOA) with the Annie E Casey Foundation, and since it hasn’t been received, JDAI is withdrawing funding from those sites until we receive funding and MOA from Casey. If Commissioner Velasquez decides to attend the JDAI conference in Houston, Texas, he will use his own agency’s funds for travel. 3) Letter of interest sent to John Howard and partner with Redeploy Board Oversight Board regarding phasing out JDAI in Casey and focusing on corrections. 4) Preliminary conversation in committee and with Planning and Grants Committee about scope of work increasing with additional programs. Domestic Battery program, Transportation and Compliance may be designated to be monitored by JDAI after committees are re-structured to coincide with the 3 Year Plan. Need to start the new fiscal year with a new organizational structure for monitoring and fiscal support.
F. Planning and Grants Committee:
Nothing further noted.
IX. Legislative Update:
HB5602 sponsored by Carol Sente: Amends the School Code and the Juvenile Court Act of 1987. Provides that the inspection and copying of law enforcement records maintained by law enforcement agencies that relate to a minor who has been arrested or taken into custody before his or her 17th birthday may be released to appropriate school officials by a local law enforcement agency under a reciprocal reporting system established and maintained between the school district and the local law enforcement agency concerning a minor enrolled in a school within the school district who is the subject of a police investigation, or has been arrested or taken into custody for an offense classified as a felony or a Class A or B misdemeanor. It would broaden to include detention, investigation, etc. Youth Network Council sent a fact sheet on this bill. Karrie worked for about three hours with Representative Sente and DHS’ Legislative Staff discussing this bill and its implications. It is significantly better, but everything that Karrie wanted to be removed from the bill is exactly what they wanted in the bill. The information will be verbal and not part of the youth’s file. They have to provide rehabilitative services to the youth. Karrie wasn’t able to get a stronger penalty for anyone who shares or misuses the information about the youth. ICOY distributed the fact sheet and they feel that this is likely to make it out of committee.
X. Non-Commission Funded Program Updates:
RIOB just released the grant application that gives counties that aren’t eligible for RI to obtain services for youth to keep them out of DJJ. YNC will email the documents to Commissioners. There is approximately $200,000 available for the grants. LaSalle County started the Redeploy Illinois program on February 1, 2012 and the Annual report will be out in the next couple of weeks. ARRA funded recidivism study information may be included in the annual report, because the data looks pretty good. (Redeploy, JCEC, EUDL, 2nd Chance, JABG, NRI): JCEC – administers JABG dollars. Mike Carter and Erica Hughes met with JCEC to see how to assist with that process. Funds can’t be used for new projects, but to help complete ongoing projects. In their last meeting they discussed lapsed funds from 08, 09, 10, 11. They are looking at ways to have the funds spent on productive projects. Commissioner Biehl suggested representing youth at Harrisburg. Submit any ideas you have to Chairman Timberlake that we can present to JABG. 2nd chance FIT is not a project for consideration. 2nd Chance runs out of money at the end of June.
XI. (FACJJ, FCC, CJJ):
Chairman Timberlake and Commissioner Roe will attend FACJJ meetings March 29th and April 4, 2012. Nothing new to report at this time.
XII. Other:
Facility Closure – Question was raised if it is appropriate and advisable for the Commission to have representatives at the hearing on April 4, 2012. Also, since Chairman Timberlake is unavailable, who should attend. Betsy Clark is attending for DJJ and has a position paper. Commissioner Velasquez will try to attend. Jeff Bradley and Commissioner Biehl will attend the meeting and represent the Commission. Lodging for 1-2 nights is covered as well as registration for presenters.
Karrie reported that two weeks ago she received a FOIA request on RIOB from AFSCME.
Jim Bray reported that you can post your testimony in writing on their website and there is a report stating what they plan to do with the youth that are in the facilities slated for closure.
XIII. New Business:
Call for presentations will be submitted to Commissioners for the CJJ 2012 meeting June 21-24, 2012 in Bethesda, MD. Commissioner Jacobs will be the repository for submission of presentations. Commissioner Biehl suggested that someone from the Commission present one or all three of the studies we have been working on, since they are cutting edge. Annual CJJ dues are due. Chairman Timberlake made a motion to pay the dues. Commissioner Weiner seconded the motion. All in favor, none opposed, no abstentions. Motion carries.
DJJ Case Management Grant document was received by Rob Vickery. There still remain issues with the budget concerning positions. A new contract will have to be issued July 1, 2012, for the next fiscal year, even though they have not spent all of the money in the last contract. We need to know how much they need by April 1, 2012, in order to get the contract in place.
May 31-June 1, 2012, Northwestern Medical and Law Schools and the Illinois Childhood Trauma Coalition are co-sponsoring a seminar on childhood trauma in the public sector. Included will be tracks on legal issues, public policy issues and medical issues. Commissioner Griffin will send out a save-the-date reminder.
Karrie Rueter reported on a violence prevention grant and DHS is considering submitting an application. She would like to look into partnering with multiple communities. She will contact Commissioner Jacobs with the details on this up to $1.5 million for three years. Have to demonstrate high violence needs by data. Commissioner Jacobs will be happy to look at it and work it through Planning and Grants and observing deadlines.
XIV. Adjourn:
Motion to adjourn made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Griffin. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 1:25PM.