The DMC Reduction Cycle

The Washtenaw County DMC Reduction Project will follow the five-phase method provided by the United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to calculate, analyze, and respond to disproportionate minority contact in the Juvenile Justice System.

Phase I: Identification

The primary purpose of this phase is descriptive – to describe the extent and nature of the DMC (the what), as well as to provide a baseline for future monitoring (see Phase V) and to provide initial guidance for the assessment phase (the why). Using the Relative Rate Index (RRI) method, we will compare the rate of activity for minority youth with majority youth at each of nine major decision points in the juvenile justice system:

Nine Decision Points:

· Arrest (police contact and suspicion of offense);
· Referral to the Juvenile Court (petitions);
· Diversion (informal handling by the court);
· Detention;
· Petition Filed (formal court processing);
· Delinquent Findings (adjudication):
· Probation;
· Confinement (residential placement); and
· Transfer to criminal court.

 Phase II: Assessment/Diagnosis

The assessment phase provides an in-depth examination of how DMC occurs. An assessment is a search for the factors that contribute to DMC, with the goal that the results may lead to strategies or interventions to reduce DMC.

 Phase III: Intervention

Interventions will fall into one of three categories and often strategies from each category will be included in a plan.

1. Direct Services – targeting at-risk and system-involved youth, families, and communities.
2. Training and Technical Assistance – primarily for juvenile justice personnel.
3. System Change – modifying aspects of the juvenile justice system that contribute to DMC.

Phase IV: Evaluation

Evaluation will occur throughout the project, using both performance measurement data (determining whether an intervention is achieving its objectives) and evaluation (focusing on how an intervention achieves outcomes – is the change attributable to the DMC intervention).

Phase V: Monitoring

The monitoring phase is ongoing and will include periodic assessment of the achievement of project objectives as well as assessing the RRI at least annual to determine any change in DMC in the prioritized decision points.