Must Judges and Other Court Personnel Receive Special Training with Respect to Preventing and Controlling Juvenile Crime?

According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s web site, the goal of the Juvenile Accountability Block Grants program is to reduce juvenile offending through accountability-based programs focused on juvenile offenders and the juvenile justice system. Under this program, the United States Attorney General is authorized to provide grants to the states for specified purposes that meet this goal. Included among these purposes is: establishing and maintaining training programs for judges and other court personnel with respect to preventing and controlling juvenile crime. Several states provide interesting examples of the kinds of specialized training. For example, in Connecticut, by statute, it is the duty of the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparity in the Criminal Justice System to develop a curriculum for the training of all employees at all levels of the juvenile justice system on issues of cultural competency and strategies to address disproportionate minority confinement.

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