Pathways to Resilience: Assessing the Impact of Juvenile Justice Reforms in Oklahoma
Since the turn of the millennium, there has been a concerted nationwide effort to divert justice-involved youth away from the criminal justice system and into community-based alternatives when public safety allows. That progress has been a strategic focus in the state of Oklahoma.
This partnership is a remarkable opportunity for Oklahoma’s juvenile justice system to evaluate and strengthen the reforms we have championed for decades. We are committed to transforming the way the youth justice system supports high-need youth.
- Constanzia Nizza, Chief of Operational Excellence at OJA
Beginning in 2024, Oklahoma’s Office of Justice Affairs (OJA) partnered with AIR to examine the impact of Oklahoma’s legislative and procedural juvenile justice reforms that led to a system of community-based alternative services to youth incarceration. With funding from the National Institute of Justice, AIR’s four-year study will examine the implementation of community-based services and the effects of these developmental and rehabilitative services on youth outcomes over a 20-year period.
The study will be conducted in phases, concluding by December 31, 2027.
AIR's Implementation and Outcome Studies
The study will analyze data from a comprehensive state-level data collection and management system, to capture effective practices and identify areas for improvement intended to support capacity building at the community and state levels. AIR will interview agency staff, caregivers, and youth served by the agencies, and use OJA’s robust database. AIR will also work with a small group of youth serving agencies and provide technical assistance to strengthen their data-informed decision making and services provided in communities.
Using a collaborative approach, AIR will work closely with OJA, Oklahoma's State Advisory Group, and youth researchers to share findings from the study with county juvenile bureaus, community representatives, Youth Service Agencies, tribal partners, and other key stakeholders to support local knowledge in Oklahoma. Sharing Oklahoma’s journey of youth justice reforms—and the stories of youth, families, and communities that have benefited from these reforms—will help us inform policy and practices in juvenile justice reforms across the U.S.
AIR has served OJA through its Center for Coordinated Assistance to States, now the Center for Youth Justice Transformation, with funding from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention. We are thrilled to continue learning from OJA and serve its efforts to transform youth justice in the State of Oklahoma. The AIR research team includes young people with lived experience whose involvement in all phases of the study will enrich our contributions to the discourse of juvenile justice reforms nationwide.
This project was supported by Award No. 15PNIJ-23-GG-02409-TITL, awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.
