Since President Trump appointed her to head the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Caren Harp has begun reshaping the agency with a goal in mind: deregulation. Several divisions are gone and new ones have been created. That has worried advocates and juvenile justice practitioners who see it as an effort to gut the office of its power and scope, reports the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. The divisions of Juvenile Justice System Improvement, State and Community Development and Youth Development, Prevention, and Safety have been shut down. The research duties of the OJJDP’s Innovation and Research Division were transferred to the National Institute of Justice. “We want OJJDP to be as big, as strong and as helpful to the states as possible,” said Sarah Bryer of the National Juvenile Justice Network. “It’s held states to a very hard standard. It’s pushed the bar. So, when we see divisions being shut down or being transferred to other agencies, it makes it appear that OJJDP is taking a less central role.”
Harp said OJJDP’s goals are unchanged, and that only some of the ways to achieve them has shifted. OJJDP “envisions a nation where our children are free from crime and violence. If they come into contact with the justice system, the contact should be both just and beneficial to them,” a agency spokesman said. Jeffrey Butts of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Research and Evaluation Center said transferring OJJDP’s research functions risks effectively freezing research in the field. Closing of divisions such as Juvenile Justice System Improvement ― a point of contact for advocates and social workers who provided input — has left many of them perplexed and worried. New divisions have exacerbated concerns, such as the Special Victims and Violent Offenders Division, which some advocates say will emphasize punishment.