Youth With Disabilities in the Juvenile Justice System: Prevention and Intervention Strategies. Examining Current Challenges in Secondary Education and Transition. Issue Brief. Volume 4, Issue 1

How do communities begin to address the issue of youth with disabilities who become involved with correctional systems? This brief provides information on proactive solutions based on restorative justice and wrap-around services, models, and strategies. This topic is receiving more attention as research has begun supporting a critical need for intervention in this area (Burrell &Warboys,2000;Christle,Jolivette, & Nelson, 2000; National Council on Disability, 2003). There is a serious gap between the number of youth with disabilities in the general population and those who are incarcerated. In 2000, the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) reported the prevalence of disabilities among school age children in the United States as 9%, compared with a conservative estimate of 32% within the juvenile justice system (Quinn, Rutherford, Jr., & Leone, 2001) Larson and Turner (2002) cite research on the incidence and overrepresentation of youth with disabilities in the juvenile justice system, including a study done by Otto in 1995 indicating that approximately 90% of youth in corrections meet the diagnostic criteria for one or more mental health disorders. Research explaining underlying causes for this situation is scarce. Quinn et al. (2002) indicate that criminal behavior has been strongly linked to a number of factors including dropping out of school, substance abuse, weak family structure, poverty, and learning and behavioral disabilities, among others. This brief focuses on two models, restorative justice and wrap-around services, to illustrate proactive intervention for reducing the number of youth with disabilities incarcerated in juvenile and adult prisons.Transition planning for youth with disabilities has not focused extensively on involvement with the juvenile justice system. Increased attention is needed on the growing number of youth with disabilities involved in the juvenile and adult correctional systems. This document provides 19 References with 5 additional references added on the back cover.