Peeling Back the Data

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Peeling Back the Data Onion

• Presented by Karen Tucker, Union County DMC
  Project Coordinator

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BI Level One Key Data Points

• Referrals to Juvenile Court
• Includes Top 10 Offenses, Time of Offense,
  Race/Ethnicity and Gender
• Referrals to Detention
• Includes Race/Ethnicity and Gender, Top 10
  Offenses, Referral Source
• Admissions to Detention
• Includes ALOS, Top 10 admission reasons,
  Geographic Areas, etc.

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Lets Look at One Data Point Detention Admissions
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The Onion Layers of Detention

• Use your BI Level One Data to generate questions
• Make charts of the data that is easily accessible
  It will make it easier to see trends
• Ask the tough questions of the trends and dig
  deeper to find the answers

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The First Layer of the Detention Onion BI Level
One Data
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Questions Raised from BI Level One Data

• Start with the easy Questions
• What are the original charges of the youth being
  sent to detention?
• What are the charges for the detention admission?

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Original Charges - These are NOT the detaining
charges
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Things to note

• All of the top original charges were misdemeanors
• The top original charge was undisciplined/ungovern
  able status offense

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Detaining Offenses
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New Questions Raised

• What violations occurred for the youth to be
  detained?
• How serious were the violations?
• How do the violations of probation differ for
  youth of color?

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Actual Reasons Listed for Violations of Probation
Detention Admission Reasons 2008Data were
obtained from NC JOIN and Case Files and are
current as of January 21, 2009
ALL MINOR VIOLATIONS!!!!
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What did we learn?

• Minority youth were more likely to be detained
  for a violation of probation
• 53 of detention admissions for VOPs were
  minority youth
• All of the probation violations for detained
  youth were minor violations

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Finding Solutions to the Layers of the Onion

• What can we do to prevent these youth from being
  placed in detention for a violation of probation?
• Graduated Sanctions for Violations of Probation
  Grid
• Reduced detention admissions for violations of
  probation by 67 overall and by 50 for all
  minorities in the first quarter of using the grid

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The next layer

• While we had a 50 reduction in the minority
  detention admission rate, minorities continue to
  make up 60 of the detention admissions

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How can we peel back the data even more?

• With nine months of using the sanctions grid, we
  are in the process of gathering all data on the
  use of the grid
• How often was the grid used for youth of color
  vs. white youth?
• Are there disparate numbers in the usage of the
  grid?
• Are there specific sanctions that are unfair to
  youth of color?
• Are the sanctions appropriate and effective?

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Things to remember

• Let your data guide your thought process
• Ask the tough questions and know that some people
  may not want them answered
• If you can not find the answers to your
  questions, find the information holder
• Keep eating away at the layers

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Just a thoughtAre the outer layers or the core
more interesting?
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Contact Information

• Karen Tucker, Union County DMC Project
  Coordinator
• uniondmc_at_hotmail.com
• 704-562-3138