Leaders with Multnomah County’s Juvenile Services Division are being recognized in a national publication, The Police Chief magazine, for helping launch the Community Healing Initiative Early Intervention and Diversion Program (CHI Early Intervention). The program was initiated with the goal that it would bring a needed focus on prevention and intervention in the juvenile justice system and help reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the region. This pilot began in February 2015 and was spearheaded by Christina McMahan - the county’s former Juvenile Services Division director - along with a team of other public safety and nonprofit partners such as the Latino Network and Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center (POIC). Brian Detman, System Change and Community Initiatives manager for the Juvenile Services Division at Multnomah County, was also part of piloting the program.
The CHI program was organized in response to the troubling disparities that have plagued the juvenile justice system in the region for years. African-American youth are more than four times more likely than white youth to be referred by law enforcement to the Juvenile Services Division, while Latino youth are three times more likely than whites to be committed to a secure state facility.
Specifically, the CHI Early Intervention program will focus on youth with low-level, first-time offenses. Case workers will assess youth needs and work with them to engage/re-engage in school and pro-social activities, as well as access job readiness and/or employment opportunities and any needed services and supports. Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury’s $1.8 billion proposed budget for the 2016 fiscal year includes more than $500,000 for intervention, mentoring and school advocacy programs to address and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system. The budget was approved June 18 and will take effect July 1.
Read "The Multnomah County Experience: Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice"