cossroads. The direction we choose to take as a Nation may well determine the
destiny of our youth.
To make informed decisions, we need timely information. With this issue, Juvenile
Justice continues to make its contribution to that end.
In Restoring the Balance: Juvenile and Community Justice, Gordon Bazemore and
Susan Day provide valuable insights into balanced and restorative justice. Decrying
the failure of traditional treatment and criminalized retributive models to restore
public confidence in the juvenile justice system, the authors advocate an alternative,
community-oriented system that involves citizens in setting clear limits on antisocial
behavior and establishing appropriate consequences for juvenile offenders.
OJJDP’s Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Programs (IAP) initiative, launched
in 1988, helps correctional agencies enhance aftercare, commonly regarded as one
of the weak links in the juvenile justice system. In Aftercare Not Afterthought: Testing
the IAP Model, coprincipal investigators David Altschuler and Troy Armstrong
describe the implementation of the initiative.
If information is essential to making sound decisions, getting information into the
hands of those who can use it is crucial. Satellite teleconferencing is changing the
way people receive information, where they receive it, and from whom. OJJDP is
committed to using state-of-the-art techniques to disseminate information to the juvenile
justice field, as Michael Jones, Bruce Wolford, and F.M. Porpotage evidence
in Using Satellite Teleconferencing.
Juvenile justice is at a crossroads, but with the support of committed professionals
and concerned citizens like the readers of Juvenile Justice, I am confident that the
road ahead will be one of promise for America’s youth.
Shay Bilchik
Administrator
Office of Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention
