Educational Support Reduces Arrest Recidivism for Adolescents

Abstract Educational support for both youth and caregivers is one of the priorities that are required to prevent involvement of youth in the justice system. Since August 2018, JusticeEd has matched students with Education Liaisons that provide probation-involved students and their families with individualized educational case management, coaching, and mentoring. We examined the likelihood of re-arrest and time to re-arrest for participants in the JusticeEd (JE) program, in comparison to a sample of youth referred to educational support but who did not receive JusticeEd services. Data were requested from a large California county’s Juvenile Probation Department for all youth arrested and referred to educational services during a 4.5-year timeframe. The data included arrest dates, offenses, adjudication decisions, whether JE services were received, and youth and family risk factors assessed for all youth actively supervised by the Probation Department. Propensity score matching was used to match the comparison group with those receiving JE services. A lower proportion of JusticeEd youth than those in the comparison were re-arrested. For those re-arrested, event history analysis of time to re-arrest showed that the JE youth had a shorter time period to re-arrest during the program period, but after the program period the time to re-arrest was no different than the matched comparison youth. The JE program’s ability to affect re-arrests is most likely due to the program’s intensive approach to supporting families, acting as liaison to the school, and removing barriers to the parent’s and student’s engagement with school.