Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Meeting

Subcommittee on Policy 

Overview

The Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Policy 

Subcommittee has met three times since the last full Coordinating Council meeting on April 19, 

2023. Monthly meetings were held on June 22, July 20, and August 17 respectively. The 

committee includes a total of thirteen members representing six federal agencies and five

practitioners from the field. Four new practitioner members and one additional federal agency 

member were welcomed to the committee during this period.

The Policy Subcommittee was convened to identify and explore policy opportunities that would 

benefit from interagency coordination to serve youth more effectively – especially those who 

are system-involved. Policy, for the purposes of this subcommittee, has been defined broadly 

to include legislative and regulatory actions as well as federal agency policy and program 

instruction impacting practice. It was generally acknowledged that practice and policy should 

be closely coordinated/aligned and that the Council’s two subcommittees may find specific 

areas of mutual support as they begin to identify strategies for action. 

During the last three meetings, members worked to identify specific goals and objectives that 

would focus the subcommittee’s efforts, ensure adherence to the statutory purpose of the 

Council, and define and delineate the role of the policy subcommittee in relation to the 

subcommittee on programs and practice. To that end, members carefully reviewed statutory 

language describing the function of the Council and explored ways the policy subcommittee 

could support those functions. The subcommittee then used the next two meetings to draft, 

discuss, and finalize a goal and a set of five objectives for future action. The goal and objectives 

focus on the analysis and review of federal policy to shape recommendations for consideration 

by the full Council and, ultimately, Congress and the President. 

The subcommittee’s objectives outline policy areas for review that impact justice-involved 

youth and those youth at high risk of contact with the justice system across the purview of 

participating Federal agencies. These areas include review and analysis of the following: 1) 

legislative, regulatory or organizational policy changes; 2) programs and policy alignment with 

emergent research and promising practice; 3) interagency agreements; 4) identification of 

service and system gaps resulting in unmet youth needs; and 5) reasons that youth enter

Federal custody and the implications for practice and facility management. Across all five of 

these areas, the policy subcommittee will assess federal actions and guidelines for consistency

across federal agencies, for alignment with emergent research, and to encourage federal 

collaboration and agreements that more effectively support justice-involved youth and youth at 

high risk of justice involvement. 
The policy subcommittee is proposing to collect, review, and analyze these areas to report back 

to the Council on findings and make recommendations on policy inconsistencies, gaps and 

needs for consideration. The subcommittee further agreed that it would continue to meet and

use the next few months to organize, share, and work through a process for reviewing the 

above outlined policy areas. 
Policy Subcommittee Members:

Kristen Kracke

Chair

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Marissa Abbott 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Joseph Bullock

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Mary Campise

U.S. Department of Defense

Amiyah Davis

Practitioner Member

Sherene Donaldson 

U. S. Department of Education

Gregory Henschel

U. S. Department of Education

 

Cheri Hoffman 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Jennifer Kemp 

U.S. Department of Labor

Michael Mendoza

Practitioner Member

Mark Patterson 

Practitioner Member

Lourdes Rosado

Practitioner Member

Liz Simons

Practitioner Member