← Youth Justice Transformation in Action
Youth Justice Transformation in Action
Critical Keys to Successful Probation and Youth Justice System Reform (ft. Bev Hoagland)
00:32:26
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- [00:00]
Bev Hoagland
Foreign.
- [00:08]
Jody Martin
Welcome to Season two of Youth Justice Transformation in Action. We are the RFK National Resource center for Juvenile justice and we are on a mission to transform the youth justice system by partnering with people like you who are passionate about improving outcomes for youth, families and communities you serve. I'm Jody Martin.
- [00:26]
John Toole
John and I'm John Toole. This season we are excited to highlight jurisdictions across the country who partnered with us through the OJJDP funded Denison Mondoro Probation and Juvenile Justice System Enhancement Project. You will learn about their experiences, including their challenges, innovative solutions and valuable lessons learned, and have an opportunity to explore how their successful reform efforts may be replicated within your state or local community.
- [00:51]
Jody Martin
In today's episode, Critical Keys to Successful Probation and Youth Justice System Reform, John interviews our guest, Bev Hoagland, Chief probation officer of District 3J Probation Office in Lancaster County, Nebraska. Bev will highlight the importance of incorporating brain science, research and training and policies, address the critical role of a program coordinator in probation and youth justice system reform, and identify specific probation and court practices that produced impressive reductions in recidivism with associated positive behavior change among their probation population. John and Bev will also discuss how implementation science assisted Nebraska with improving outcomes and ensuring sustainability of their reforms. Thank you for joining us, John. Take it away.
- [01:35]
John Toole
Good afternoon everyone. My name is John Toole. I'd like to welcome you to our podcast series, the first episode in our 2023 series. I'm thrilled to welcome Bev Hoagland, Chief Probation officer of District 3 Probation Office in Lincoln, Nebraska to today's episode. We're happy to talk about the progress and the transformation of youth justice that's been made in our field through the work of the Dennis and Mondoro Project and particularly today through the outstanding work that's been done in Lancaster county and in Lincoln, Nebraska. Bev, could you tell us just a little bit more about your background that led you to be in the position of leadership in Lancaster County, Nebraska?
- [02:13]
Bev Hoagland
First of all, I just want to say thank you so much, John, for the invitation to be a part of this 2023 series. I am really excited to highl highlight a lot of the work that's been done, not really so much by me, but some very committed people in Lincoln, Lancaster county and District 3J in particular. So a little bit about myself. I actually came into the district in 1992 and I started my career in juvenile probation as a probation officer doing all of the work that probation officers did back then, including intakes and completing predisposition reports and supervising high, medium and low risk youth. I was eventually promoted to the chief deputy position, which I held for over 20 years. And a lot of my work as chief deputy was spent with oversight of our quality assurance. That was done in the district, a lot of the training and then I had primary oversight and supervision of our leadership team, served in that capacity until our longtime chief, Lori Griggs, retired last December. And I have now been in my position as chief since February of 2022.
- [03:27]
John Toole
Yeah, welcome. Certainly it's an experienced background that you have. As you know, I've had the privilege of working with you and your former colleague, Lori Griggs. It was a privilege to watch you demonstrate your leadership in our work together. That work really launched with the probation system review using our framework with Lancaster County. Remind me that what year it was that we began that relationship to conduct the review.
- [03:51]
Bev Hoagland
It would have been in 2017. The actual review was completed in April of 2018.
- [03:57]
John Toole
And there were a set of recommendations that you, Laurie, and a group within Lancaster County Probation Office embraced as priorities and began to attack right away. I think in this transformation journey, you identified some key principles, some key practices, and and certainly your key priorities to focus on, beginning with what I would argue is a seminal adolescent development training curriculum to educate staff and key stakeholders. Bev, can you share more about that curriculum, how the core principles of adolescent brain development have been incorporated into your local policies and procedures?
- [04:34]
Bev Hoagland
Yes, I would be excited to. This is, I would say, one of the things that I am most proud of. I'm not the adolescent brain development trainer, and I didn't have to be because we have such incredible, innovative and creative staff who really took this on, both in the development and the training stages. We really started with exploring what was out there in relation to curriculum nationally. And the work group that did a lot of this just felt like there was nothing that really fit specifically to what we wanted in our county. So they took on this undertaking of creating our own curriculum. So this curriculum is set up with six modules. They're about four hours each, and they include the five areas of development, including social, emotional, physical, moral and cognitive development. And then they also added a component in relation to trauma and resiliency. The thing that I really like about this curriculum is it was so well crafted in that it paid a lot of attention to people's learning styles. Very interactive, lots of videos. There was pre work, we did a pre test, a post test so we could really assess if people were capturing and learning the information. And then we also added a piece in relation to application. So we wanted to know that they were receiving it, but they could also apply it. And the scenarios that they were working off of were scenarios that we had encountered within our district. So they were very real and very relevant to our district. So that's what the curriculum consists of. We were able to then share that curriculum and offered it up to some of our stakeholders, namely attorneys. We felt it would be valuable for them to have a lot of this information since they are working with youth going through the juvenile court system. So we did have our first round of training that we did back in 2020. We invited these attorneys to participate in the training with us. And while we didn't have a large number complete all of the modules, we did have a consistent set of people that were attending most of the modules.
- [06:48]
John Toole
Why did you focus so heavily on developing that particular curriculum and why did you make the commitment to adolescent development in your practice?
- [06:56]
Bev Hoagland
It was really obvious through the findings that you had brought to us. John, you had shared a lot of research and how can. How can you argue with. It was certainly a gap. There was an opportunity for not just our staff, but other stakeholders that work with youth to be exposed to this, to hopefully help them enhance the work that they were doing, ultimately with a goal of providing kids the best opportunity to be successful.
- [07:22]
John Toole
Bev with the focus in this curriculum on not only the proficiency of understanding of the principles and the research tenets of adolescent development, but as you mentioned, the application, I think later in our conversation we're going to highlight how that really supported as a foundational piece of some of your biggest successes as you move forward and led this transformation effort. So again, I ask, is this available to other jurisdictions if they wanted to learn about the six modules, about the training itself, or even about how you produced it and make it available to them?
- [07:57]
Bev Hoagland
It is absolutely. One thing I would say in relation to that is we have been asked to provide both training and presentations around this curriculum. We've been able to tweak that essentially to our audience. So we have presented at the local level, for example, at the University of Nebraska Lincoln Law College to students there who hope to work in juvenile court at some point in their career. We. We have presented at statewide conferences. I was able to present about the curriculum at the symposium that was held in Nashville a couple of years ago. And we do have a group that will be presenting at the APPA training in February, which will be in Omaha, Nebraska. So, yes, it's available and we are more than happy to talk with anyone that's interested in learning more about this, sharing our journey and any of the resources that we have used to help us with the development of it.
- [09:00]
John Toole
This is a huge highlight of our discussion and the work that you did. Bev, I congratulate you and of course, all your staff with whom we've developed very close relationships with. Once again, I'd highlight the application, the proficiency of understanding, the inclusion of key stakeholders in the decision making processes where there's an understanding of adolescent development and the availability to others after you've improved it through your experiences of delivering this curriculum. I think this is a key to the nation for those jurisdictions attempting to find a methodology and a manner to implement adolescent development at its very core of practice and philosophy. So I congratulate you, your leadership and all your staff on this development. A lot of the work that you all did in Lancaster county was also supported by an allocation of a staff position that helped coordinate and lead in the development of all the meetings, all the information being consolidated, shared, all of the discussions that really allowed for an open process to providing innovative reforms that were unique to Lancaster county and that could be implemented in Lancaster County. In fact, the program coordinator job description for you provides an excellent example of the key activities that I believe successfully contributed to to reforms. Can you share more about that coordinator position and the critical nature of the role from your perspective?
- [10:24]
Bev Hoagland
Yes. So I'm going to start with just a huge acknowledgment to our probation administration because from the onset, when we were identified as the site that would be receiving the benefit of the system review and then the technical assistance from day one, they committed a staff person to our district and essentially that program specialist became totally immersed in our district. She had an office in our district. She was incredibly helpful in all aspects. She wasn't just a note taker. She was helping set up meetings, she was helping develop agendas. She was coordinating our larger system, stakeholder meetings. There were times when we were stuck and she would reach out to Dr. Robin Jenkins and say, I think they need a little pick me up or some additional guidance because we were stuck. And she would arrange some meetings and very thoughtfully prepared to help us address where we were stuck. There were times when she drove the bus and there were other times when she knew she needed to sit in the passenger seat and let us start to show that we were able to apply the things that we were learning in relation to implementation science. It was just such an incredible way to empower our staff because we knew that eventually she would be going away. So yes, I would say that was invaluable. And I'm not sure that we would have been able to make a lot of the progress that we did without that position. She kept us on track. Some days we needed a little boost and she was there to provide whatever we needed in the moment to help carry the work forward.
- [12:01]
John Toole
And in fact, this position, captured in the critical elements that were implemented in Lancaster county now serves as an important example in our system reform work for other jurisdictions to mimic or include in their efforts. So again, I congratulate you on recognizing the importance of, of coordinating these multi system stakeholders, of providing that boost that you spoke to. Actually in some instances of providing the kind of subject matter expertise or at least access to those resources to ensure that we never landed in a pothole that we couldn't traverse around or through. Again, we think that it is a key. The research would support that, but it is a key in system reform efforts to have the kind of program coordination that was provided by your program coordinator. So I appreciate you describing that a little bit more and helping some of our audience understand these are the kind of key things that are often overlooked that are critical to keep momentum going forward. That momentum that I speak to really reflects what happened over the last two and a half years as you implemented some of those key priorities that you guys identified. One of those was around an early and successful closure of probation case process. That critically important achievement reflects the great work that you and your colleagues led in Lancaster County. It involves the methods by which probation cases are closed early and successfully with the coordination and cooperation of attorneys and judges and of course your probation staff. Can you talk about how that revised procedure has resulted in such enormous success in Lancaster County, Nebraska?
- [13:36]
Bev Hoagland
Yes, again, something I'm really proud of. And this case closure process was something that we had actually started a little bit even prior to the recommendations report coming out. A lot of that was because we were just seeing youth on probation for extended periods of time, years. And we all know what we know about youth and development and it's just not possible for them to be under the radar and excel for periods of time. So it did coincide with a lot of the information that we found in the system review report. The biggest thing was we were challenged to think a little bit differently about how we were utilizing the YLS assessment. And what we were initially doing fairly well was we were using that risk level to help determine the level of supervision and case management that our youth would be provided. What we were challenged to do was think about how could we expand the use of the yls. And where that evolved to was why not take a look after we reassess this, where are youth making progress both in their overall risk level, but maybe particular key life areas that we know can impact their overall success. So the case closure process became more about. First of all, there were lots of conversations with the judges, would they be open to this? And some of the feedback we were getting was they weren't really fully aware of the services that the youth were getting during the term of probation because those closure reports were really just focusing on the conditions. Were they completing the condition or were they not? So this took a different focus where we were asking our staff to complete the yls at least 30 days prior to the time when we wanted to present a report to the court. A lot of times that could be them carrying out their full term of probation or it could be a point in time where they made enough progress that we wanted to advocate for an early release. And what we started to do was we started to talk more about incremental or smaller successes rather than overall perfection. And with that, staff were able to articulate a reduction in risk in certain areas better speak to the services that were in place that may have been beneficial in helping that youth along their journey, and then articulating and supporting their reason for either a successful release or an early release.
- [16:02]
John Toole
What a great description of the change, the way in which probation would work with youth to both reduce the risk and promote the positive behavior opportunities through service interventions and through their own probation support for them. Thank you, Bev. I think there's some data though that is pretty compelling. You've more than doubled your early closure and successful probation rate at least over a two plus year period of time. And along with that, haven't you also realized a reduction in recidivism among that early successful closure population?
- [16:34]
Bev Hoagland
Yes. So I have some relatively fresh data from fourth quarter. We don't quite have our annual data for 2022 yet, but for example, in quarter four we had 75 cases that were closed. Of those, 76% were successful closures, leaving 24% that were unsuccessful. And in that there were 24 early closures, essentially 32% of the total closures were early and 42% of the satisfactory closures were early. Our goal has been 20% of all releases to be early and 25% to be satisfactory closures. And we continue to really exceed those goals.
- [17:21]
John Toole
And it also points to the amazing preparation and attention you gave to collecting the data so that you're not just Speaking anecdotally about your success, you have been able to speak now for two and a half or more years about the implementation of this change in a truly quantitative, data informed method. And that data continues to be amazing. You started with 15%, you wanted to get 20, you are consistently doubling that. And also, at least as of the data, when we concluded our relationship, I believe the last data point indicated that that had contributed to an overall reduction of your recidivism in 3J probation by nearly 20 to 22%. Yes, it's an amazing approach that you have taken. Also replicable because of the documentation and the careful attention to the detail of the process. Am I correct about that?
- [18:13]
Bev Hoagland
Yes. In respect to our recidivism, I would say our baseline was anywhere from 26 to 28% and our most recent recidivism is 17%. And at one point this past year, 1/4 we were at 13%. I really feel like this case closure process is really the bow on the package because it's really putting everything together and this is what we really want. These are the true outcomes that we're looking to impact. We're hoping that we continue to get better, but we're feeling really good about where we're at.
- [18:46]
John Toole
I want to highlight one other aspect that I think significantly contributed to this that you all have supported in consistent implementation and that is to reduce the risk. You've embraced the research that suggests the balance of application of incentives versus sanctions. And I think because you also committed to collecting data about the application of incentives and sanctions in working with youth, you can reflect the data that indicates you significantly increased during this period of measurement for this early closure, the application of incentives versus sanctions. Can you speak to that a little bit with your perspective?
- [19:21]
Bev Hoagland
Obviously it's critical. Our goal is 4 to 1 in relation to incentives to sanctions. And there was a point in our data tracking that we had exceeded that goal. It does tend to ebb and flow. But I think we were able to get buy in from staff. Again, I feel like so much of this we started with adolescent brain development and training and as they understood more about the development, I think it clicked them that obviously youth receive incentives much better than they receive things that are imposed or done to them. It was a no brainer that we would want to focus our attention on that. I think the biggest incentive that we've been able to offer youth, and again this comes with the support of our judiciary, is an opportunity for them to get off of probation early. So that's always where we try to Start. We've been fortunate in the state to have received some funding from a private organization. So we're able to provide tangible incentives to kids. We have an incentives closet, and it's full of things such as jewelry and basketballs and diaries and doodle pads. And then in addition to that, we have gift cards. So those are things that we're encouraging our officers to think about. Opportunities. Again, we're not looking for perfection action, but if we're making some progress, why not provide some additional motivation to them?
- [20:47]
John Toole
I want to give you a chance to just maybe highlight even more or respond. But this was not just dumb luck in terms of the incentives. Your staff contributed to the kinds of incentives based on their experience with the youth that could be applied both in the short term and immediacy and in the long term, like the view that they could get off probation sooner. This was calculated for you to have this. Well, literally this closet full of opportunities or incentives for their behavior. I also want to maybe proffer one other thought to you, get your reaction. We hear a lot of naysayers to this approach and to this research say you don't incentivize bad behavior. This approach that suggests the inclusion of both incentives and sanctions is a balance. Yes, the research identifies a 4 to 1 ratio as most likely to change the behavior. But we incentivize the good behavior, the change in behavior. We sanction the bad behavior. This is not an exclusion of accountability or an exclusion of the sanctioning of the bad behavior. If you don't mind, could you comment on that? Both aspects of what you did to develop an array of incentives and whether or not you really actively teach the notion that this is a balance.
- [21:57]
Bev Hoagland
Yes, I do want to go back to incentives because I think incentives don't have to be tangible things. There are times when an incentive for youth can be some positive praise or working with the family. One of the things we know is that, well, our plan is to not be involved in that youth's life for the rest of their duration. And so we try to model things for parents. So we have some of our officers who are really good at encouraging the parents to look for opportunities to provide incentives. And then we as probation, simply support their decisions in relation to that. So I wanted to just add that piece because I think it's a little bit broader than just giving them things. But obviously there's a place for sanctioning. It needs to be fair and consistent and timely. We like to coin it accountability with compassion. It wasn't my phrase. It was Somebody smarter than me. But it has sit well with our staff. And I do know that as you were talking about naysayers, I can think of a number of situations. An example might be a probation officer is at a school meeting. And maybe they've previously made a promise to youth. If you are able to come to school three out of five days this week, I am going to give you an incentive. What do you want? Then they find themselves at a school meeting and it's not going so well. The officer has been challenged sometimes by a parent or a teacher about why would you possibly want to incentivize this behavior when they're going off the rails? So we've really had to work with officers to give them the confidence to message back that this is okay, we're going to do this. And yes, then we will obviously be addressing this other behavior that needs attention in a different way.
- [23:37]
John Toole
And Bev, having the privilege of working with you and your wonderful probation staff has allowed me to understand that there has been a strong embrace of this notion and the application has truly applied the balance, which I would argue makes for a much more rich opportunity to partner with your stakeholders, the critical stakeholders in decision making, like the attorneys, like the judges, to really come together and build a solid practice around these fundamentals that produces this success. And therefore it tends to give you much greater success in sustainability of this practice because it's not imposed upon your partners. It was done in consensus. And again, I think the balanced approach is listened to by the youth justice system and stakeholders much more openly. So I applaud that you've been able to establish those relationships as well. Shifting focus a little bit from that. There's a critical importance when we start to talk about sustainability in supporting these positive outcomes or these systematic changes within youth justice or probation. You have embraced implementation science or change management, which is kind of the technical terms for what I just described in creating that infrastructure to support the changes. How has that embrace assisted Lancaster county with improving the outcomes and really increasing the fidelity of your reforms and current practices?
- [25:00]
Bev Hoagland
Well, obviously the implementation science, being more informed and just being able to grasp the concepts and apply them has been foundational. We couldn't have done the work. We couldn't have made any of the progress that we did really without that. And we are certainly grateful to you for the technical support you've provided, be it you personally coming on site offering up Dr. Robin Jenkins, who has shared a wealth of knowledge with us, and that includes things such as paying attention to co creation and teaming. We. We Spent a lot of time with our staff, we spent a lot of time with stakeholders. And a lot of it was information sharing. It was you sharing information with large groups, talking about the research, talking about best practices and what's going on nationally. All of that was just so critical to helping get people ready. And I would say one of the best things that we did very early on was we looked to involve not just our leadership team in the work groups. We had a line staff in addition to supervisors that were chairing those five specific work groups that we identified as our priorities. What a great way to give the work back to the people who do it every day and really are more experts on the day to day than I am. It was such an incredible way to get buy in from them, but then buy in from other staff because I think a lot of times they would rather hear it from their peers than from me. We have spent a lot more time in relation to staff development. We've done some training. We're looking at where do we need to do boosters. We have new staff coming on board. So just continuing to think about how we can equip them so that they feel competent in the work that they're doing. And these are again some of the principles of implementation science, I think that have been critical for us. And I think then key too in juvenile justice. We aren't so good at celebrating our successes. I think one of my favorite things was when we were getting ready to launch, you were in Lincoln for a site visit. We had a crazy notion that maybe you and one of the judges should prepare a video as kind of a kickoff. And it was a real shout out to the work that we were about to do. And we used that video. Then it just became a real celebration and tried to really highlight. This is a big deal and we're moving forward from here. That was awesome. And I think just continuing to find ways to celebrate those successes. So a lot more for sure. But those are some of the things that come to mind off the top of my head.
- [27:36]
John Toole
Well, those are some of the critical, most critical components of this kind of technical terminology of implementation science or change management. In plain language, that co creation sounds like a technical term. It's really just ensuring that staff is part of that effort or other stakeholders are part of those efforts to bring about those reforms. I think I can offer that your commitment to this implementation science and all of the fundamental components has significantly contributed to the success. And you just highlighted three or four major points that I hope our listeners are able to Embrace and maybe do a little research on. It's not that difficult to employ those practices, those consistent communications, the involvement of staff, the involvement of stakeholders in the development of the policies and the procedures, relying on the research to inform or guide that. Lancaster county serves as one of the most significant examples of undertaking this kind of courageous system review where you peel back all of the possible challenges and obstacles to good practice and you translate those into opportunities that eventually serve the youth that come into involvement in the juvenile justice system in Lancaster County. It's an extraordinary set of interwoven practices that you and will name her. Certainly Lori Griggs led for so much of the time. You deserve a significant amount of credit. But as you would do, a lot of that credit goes to your staff and to the leadership within the department and your stakeholder relationships. Those are critical concepts that you've articulated around implementation science that I hope our listeners will take on if they're taking on the changes that will improve the system's performance and the youth outcomes in their jurisdictions. Bev, if you were able to change one thing about the youth justice system, what would that be?
- [29:22]
Bev Hoagland
You know, I have to say I am a prevention person at heart, so I've just always been a believer in prevention. I think that there is a population of youth who should be served in juvenile court, but I think that should be after a lot of preventative efforts have been tried. I'm a believer in diversionary options for youth and really putting matters back where they belong, back within the community, within those non profit organizations, cultural centers, the schools, even faith communities. I think it provides an opportunity for youth to maybe have some of their behaviors addressed in a less formal setting and also sooner.
- [30:06]
John Toole
So, Bev, the evidence is in the significant challenges and obstacles that your leadership and Laura Griggs leadership and really the involvement of all of your staff and your stakeholders has produced measurable results. You've set up an infrastructure that will allow you to sustain those results. Those are the kinds of fundamentals that I think are deserving of the praise as well as the evidence of the results. And I hope our listeners will seek more information about all the challenges, all the obstacles, and all of the successes that you've achieved in Lancaster County. As we come to a close for this podcast, would you be available if there was outreach from among those persons in the field?
- [30:49]
Bev Hoagland
Absolutely. I would. I would love to have conversations, email, whatever I can do to help support this work for anyone. I would welcome that.
- [30:59]
John Toole
Well, you serve as a member of our Transformation Youth Justice Practice Network, which is made up of a number of youth justice professionals like you, who have driven this kind of innovative change, this positive change that has produced these results. I hope that people will follow up and make efforts to reach out to you and understand in greater detail how they might access answers to some of their questions as they take on this work. Bev, thank you so much. We appreciate you.
- [31:26]
Jody Martin
Thank you for listening. Today we are excited to announce that on February 6th we will be releasing our Innovation Brief titled Keys to Youth Justice Demonstration of Practical, Sustainable, Sustainable, Measurable and Replicable Solutions where you will be able to learn more about Lancaster County's Adolescent Brain Development Curriculum Program Coordinator role and all of the Youth justice transformation efforts in the Dennis M. Mondoro Project sites. The brief will be available on our website, rfknrcjj.org as always, we would love to know what you think about the podcast. To share your ideas and input, please email us at rfknrcjjfkcommunity.org and to stay connected, follow us on Twitter at RFK Youth justice and on our LinkedIn page at RFK National Resource center for Juvenile Justice.