APRI Highlights - Winter 2002

National Juvenile Justice Prosecution Center

Caren Harp, Director

APRI’s National Juvenile Justice Prosecution Center (NJJPC) is on the threshold of expansion. While continuing to provide training and technical assistance to the nation’s prosecutors, NJJPC is developing new curricula to meet the evolving needs of juvenile court prosecutors. Currently, NJJPC staff is at work crafting a mental health curriculum, addressing brain development, diseases and defects, psychiatric evaluations and the attendant trial advocacy issues. A policy development curriculum is also in the works to provide prosecutors with new strategies to implement in their jurisdictions. NJJPC also hopes to develop new curricula focusing on juvenile sex offenders and juvenile drug offenders.

NJJPC recently developed a new training tool on the topic of minority overrepresentation. Our materials on Disproportionate Minority Confinement (DMC) are currently available, although still technically in draft form. While DMC remains a somewhat controversial topic, staff has received numerous requests for training in this area. Also, previous presentations on the topic, most recently at NJJPC’s Leadership Summit at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina, have been very well received.

NJJPC also successfully presented a workshop on Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) in Tucson, Arizona, with the help of Grant Monitor Peter Frievalds. The workshop yielded good feedback, as did the focus group meeting held one evening with BARJ and community prosecution leaders. Future collaborations between the two projects were discussed, and all came away with a better understanding of the similarities and the differences between BARJ and community prosecution. The focus group meeting also served as a springboard for the BARJ Pre-Conference workshop to be held at the 29th National Conference on Juvenile Justice in March 2002 in Houston, Texas.

For more information about APRI's National Juvenile Justice Prosecution Center and a complete training calendar, please contact juvenilejustice@ndaa-apri.org.