If you are in danger, call 911. If you need to exit this website quickly, click on the ESCAPE button. This button will immediately open a browser window for weather.com and replace your current window with google.com.
Skip to agency navigation
Skip to main content

Official Website

of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

    The .gov means its official.

    Local, state, and federal government websites often end in .gov. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania government websites and email systems use "pennsylvania.gov" or "pa.gov" at the end of the address. Before sharing sensitive or personal information, make sure you're on an official state website. 
    Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

    Upgrading & Improving Juvenile Justice Systems​

    Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Justice System Enhancement Strategy (JJSES)

    Upgrading Juvenile Justice Systems​

    PCCD directs funding to programs and projects that emphasize the following:

    • Prevention and Intervention
    • Evidence of potentially high impact
    • Accountability-based reforms

    The concept of balanced and restorative justice defines much of Pennsylvania's Juvenile Justice Act, which highlights such factors as supervision, care, rehabilitation, protection of the community, and responsible and productive membership in communities.​

    Balanced and restorative justice adheres to the following principles:

    • The citizens of Pennsylvania have a right to safe and secure communities.
    • A juvenile who commits a crime has an obligation to the victim and the community.
    • Juvenile offenders should leave the justice system as more responsible and productive community members.
    • Each case in the juvenile justice system is an individual person who requires an individualized assessment of relevant information.

    Redeeming youth means building competency. This has been defined through a white paper commissioned by PCCD's Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Committee (OJJDP) to define and provide guidance as to how system professionals would develop competencies in delinquent youth. Competency development is defined as the process by which juvenile offenders acquire the knowledge and skills they need to become productive, connected, and law-abbiding members of their communities. These fall into five basic domains or skill areas: Pro-social Skills, Moral Reasoning Skills, Academic Skills, Workforce Skills, and Independent Living Skills.

    Improving the Juvenile Justice System

    As a national leader in juvenile justice, Pennsylvania has an ongoing commitment to improving its system at all levels and at each decision-making point in the system.  This is accomplished through strong partnerships, both state and local, and collaboration with public and private sector service providers.

    Pennsylvania earned its reputation as a reform-minded state in 2005 when it was the first state selected by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to participate in its Models for Change Reform Initiative.  Models for Change was a multi-year commitment to reform work in disproportionate minority contact, mental health and aftercare issues in relation to juvenile justice system operations.

    Active participation by the MacArthur Foundation ended in 2010, yet Pennsylvania’s system stakeholders wanted a framework by which the system could maintain the reforms achieved while progressing toward improvement in other areas. This framework is known as the Juvenile Justice System Enhancement Strategy (JJSES). 

    The JJSES Statement of Purpose sets the stage for system reform advancement by virtue of its grounding in research and evidence-based practices, data-driven decision making, and continuous quality improvement.  To that end, PCCD and its state partners have adopted the Standardized Program Evaluation Protocol (SPEP), which is a valid and reliable tool to evaluate services offered by residential and community-based providers.