JUVENILE JUSTICE REFORM

Social Butterflii provides training, tools, and resources to help advance juvenile justice reform.  We help agencies and programs that work with justice-involved youth better understand the steps to take to recognize and respond to the trauma-related needs of youth, family members, and staff working in the justice system. 

We have the opportunity to develop an understanding of the unique challenges this population presents, but also to decide how best to overcome those challenges through planned and thoughtful programs and strong collaboration. Our approach to addressing continued change in juvenile justice include:

• Trauma-informed programming and staff education.
• Prevention and management of secondary traumatic stress.
• Provide and increase partnerships with other youth-young adult serving agencies.

Due to policy changes, most youth under 18 involved in the justice system will fall under the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system. This is part of a shift to raise the age which are reforms focused on moving youth under 18 out of the adult criminal justice system who are automatically treated as adults because of the age of jurisdiction laws. In places that have not yet raised the age, a generation of youth will continue to face challenges transitioning to adulthood because of their exposure to the adult justice system

. 

Social Butterflii works with organizations such as the National Juvenile Justice Network.