A February 2020 report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the 2019 consent decree found that Chicago’s juvenile justice system is not achieving its goal of reducing youth recidivism, and may re-traumatize youth or increase their likelihood of reoffending—a finding that has significant implications for the thousands of youth who are arrested each year. Both the OIG report and the consent decree call for reforms to the Juvenile Intervention Support Center (JISC), a multiagency, Chicago Police Department (CPD)-run youth diversion center that serves 10 of the city’s 22 police districts—interfacing with about 3,200 youth in 2019. The JISC aims to divert youth arrested for low-level offenses away from the juvenile justice system and into social service case management.

Acting swiftly on these findings was a high priority for the City, given the lasting impact encounters with the justice system can have on youths’ lives. Moreover, the City recognized that the current system is unjust and inequitable—with young Black men arrested and incarcerated at significantly higher rates than other groups.

The Mayor’s Office and CPD called upon Civic Consulting Alliance to support their efforts to reform the JISC and to rethink what it means to offer Chicago youth an alternative to arrest. From July 2020 through January 2021, Civic Consulting Alliance worked with the Mayor’s Office, the JISC Advisory Council, and the CPD Youth Investigations Division on two approaches to reform, below.

Executing Short-Term Reforms

We provided project management and other support to rapidly implement short-term reforms at the JISC. 75% of short-term changes have been made to date, including:

• Development of “preferred qualifications” for particular jobs at the JISC to ensure that candidates are skilled at working with youth;
• Integration of a community-based organization (Lawndale Christian Legal Center) to provide case manager support to youth;
• Identification of a training program to educate JISC staff on topics such as youth development, cultural competence, and trauma-informed interactions; and
• Execution of data analysis on the times that have the most JISC arrests, and alignment of service provider presence at the JISC to those times.

Envisioning a New Diversion Model

We advanced longer-term progress towards a future youth diversion model by:

• Conducting best practice research—with support from an undergraduate fellow from The Academy Group—and more than 50 interviews with community advocates, subject matter experts, key stakeholders, and peer cities to establish a fact base to inform the model’s design; and
• Designing a roadmap for the Mayor’s Office and CPD to develop a community-informed model, including identifying seven key elements of this future model.

Equipped with this foundational work, the Mayor’s Office, CPD, and the Department of Family and Support Services aim to develop a new youth diversion model that will: improve service of young people; incorporate community perspectives; and ensure compliance with consent decree requirements and recommendations from the OIG.

“While more work remains, we are optimistic that the changes the JISC has made will improve the experience and outcomes of youth in our current juvenile justice system. Moreover, we are hopeful that the planning Civic Consulting Alliance supported will help us collaboratively develop a more equitable, community- and trauma-informed youth diversion model in the near future.”– Patty Casey, Youth Investigations Commander, Chicago Police Department

“We deeply appreciate Civic Consulting Alliance’s contributions to our efforts to reform Chicago’s youth diversion model to ensure more positive outcomes for our city’s youth.”– Susan Lee, Special Advisor to the Mayor, City of Chicago