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In this issue of the JDAI Communication Pipeline you will find:
If you would like to include information in future editions of the The JDAI Communication Pipeline, please send an email to jdai@state.ma.us.
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COVID-19 has produced competing priorities within the juvenile justice system related to the safety and well-being of our youth and the community. The move to discerningly release young people from locked settings, and the constraints placed on Probation supervision, have amplified the considerations within re-entry processes, as well as the role of the community in supporting young people. Effective re-entry includes ensuring things like stable housing, education or employment connections, access to health care, and healthy relationships. Mentorship is another tool used for re-entry planning, and transformative mentorship through the use of credible messengers is a gold-standard approach.
The role of a credible messenger, someone with lived experience, legitimacy and relatability, is critical for work that intends to affect change with vulnerable or marginalized populations. Credible messenger mentoring is described as “an approach with great promise not only to disrupt the tragic spiral of incarceration and recidivism that traps so many young people but also to strengthen communities disproportionately impacted by mass incarceration” – an effective justice reinvestment strategy (Austria & Pinkerton, 2017). This article in The Atlantic further describes a credible messenger’s role, “He is what’s known as a credible messenger—someone with personal experience of the criminal-justice system, typically their own criminal record, who now has unique legitimacy to help others in a similar position. (His official title is community associate.)” The juvenile justice system is the ideal network to connect with credible messengers.
Black and brown youth, who are historically and currently disproportionately represented in the juvenile justice system nationwide and in Massachusetts, can uniquely benefit from a connection with credible messengers. For black and brown youth, credible messengers can help them combat the unhealthy manifestation of the negative messages they receive about their race or color by imbuing healthy and productive messages full of optimism and purpose. One challenge lies in organizations and agencies legitimizing the credible messengers; these entities may have policies against hiring formerly incarcerated individuals, or conditions preventing youth from interacting with formerly incarcerated individuals.
Several programs across the country have received notoriety for their integration of credible messengers within the juvenile justice system.
Aaaaand…cue the burning questions. Is it evidence based; what are the outcomes? The evaluation of The Arches Transformative Mentoring Program found it to be generally successful in reducing reconvictions, and found it to have a positive effect on participants’ perceptions of their behavior and relationships with others. The program was most successful in achieving the desired outcomes for youth who were under 18 at the start of the program. For more on outcomes, see this report. Measures of recidivism in proving success of a program can be misleading. The recidivism indicator generally confuses system-decision making, something that is subject to inconsistency and turnover, with individual behavior, it focuses on negative outcomes, and it makes comparisons between dissimilar populations which leads to deceiving and confounding analysis. Measurements of positive outcomes that are associated with desistance from crime should be considered (some were in the ARCHES evaluation) when assessing the success of justice-related programs (Schiraldi & Butts, 2018).
Credible messengers have an impact on young people, the mentors themselves, our communities and public safety. JDAI can form linkages with communities in Massachusetts who have credible messengers, or organizations who already employ credible messengers in community outreach and case management programs. Reinvesting in justice, and promoting effective re-entry planning, necessitates the use of this strategy.
Thank you for your continued commitment to JDAI! Until next time, stay safe and healthy.
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JDAI Massachusetts seeks to ensure that the Right Youth, is in the Right Place, for the Right Reasons.
For more information about JDAI please visit our website at www.mass.gov/jdai
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