Sponsor: County Attorney's Office
Title
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Award from Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation for Restorative Outreach & Support Coordinator
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Recommendation
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1. Ratify the grant application to the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation for the Restorative Outreach & Support Coordinator.
2. Accept grant award with Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation for Restorative Outreach & Support Coordinator for the period of upon execution through December 31, 2025 in the amount of $130,000.
3. Approve an increase in the personnel complement of the County Attorney’s Office by 1.0 Full-Time Equivalent Executive Assistant Unclassified.
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Background and Rationale
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The County Attorney’s Office (RCAO) has worked for the past four years with the community and system partners to (Re)imagine justice for youth <http://www.ramseycounty.us/rjy> referred to RCAO. Through community outreach efforts and from extensive data analysis from research partners, RCAO has learned that the justice system has not served Black or Indigenous young people well, which is why RCAO is working intentionally with impacted communities to build capacity for people with lived experience to improve service to the community. RCAO is only two and a half years into our implementation, as of January 2024, and RCAO continues to evaluate and evolve based on what we learn.
At the center of the (Re)Imagining Justice for Youth transformation is the collaborative review process, which includes community, county attorney and public defender representatives as part of a Collaborative Review Team (CRT), who are jointly reviewing cases and determining how best to respond to young people referred to RCAO. In order for the CRT to make informed decisions about how best to respond, they need input from the people directly impacted - the parent/caregiver/s of the young person who caused the harm and anyone who was directly harmed (traditionally referred to as the victim/s). RCAO know all parent/caregivers have valuable insight about their young people and they deserve to be engaged from the beginning and afforded the opportunity to provide input, as well as throughout the process, to let them personally know how RCAO has decided to respond and why.
In addition, the traditional system lacks the resources to provide advocacy and support to victims unless and until a case is charged. Because RCAO is trying to decrease the collateral consequences that follow justice involvement and hamper young people’s success as they attempt to transition to self-sufficiency (get their own apartment, job, education loans, etc.), RCAO is intentionally providing youth more opportunities to resolve cases without a charge. That can have an unintended consequence to victims because they have experienced harm as a result of the incident, and they deserve support regardless of whether a case is charged. RCAO wants to do better by victims by having dedicated staff reach out to them on every case that is not declined to get their perspective to inform RCAO’s decision-making and connect them to resources and support as soon as possible after the traumatic incident.
To get good input from those closest to the incident, better partner with parent/caregivers, and improve our responsiveness and service to people who have been harmed by crime, RCAO needs dedicated staff to personally engage and connect people to supportive resources in the community, building relationships and fostering trust. To accomplish this, the County Attorney will hire a new 1.0 Full-time Equivalent position based on receiving the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation’s award and the County Attorney’s budget to pay for two years of salary costs for a Restorative Outreach & Support Coordinator, which for a position at this level, will cost around $80,000/year, plus benefits.
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County Goals (Check those advanced by Action)
☒ Well-being ☒ Prosperity ☐ Opportunity ☐ Accountability
Racial Equity Impact
As referenced above, the vast majority of young people referred to RCAO for delinquent behavior are youth of color. While there are significant decreases in the numbers of young people referred to RCAO over the past few years, racial disparities have increased overall, with recent data showing around 90% of young people referred are youth of color. RCAO’s actions in the legal system and how RCAO chooses to respond have a significant, disproportionate, and oftentimes long-lasting impact on the lives of those young people. In the traditional adversarial system, RCAO receives very little information outside of the police report, which documents the alleged incident, with which to make decisions. Youth development research demonstrates that meeting needs will change behavior, so RCAO with our justice system partners need to do a better job surfacing and meeting needs of young people to help them succeed and prevent further harmful behavior in our community. That starts with engaging the parent/caregivers to inform our decision-making. It also includes engaging any people directly impacted by the incident to get their input, give them options to participate in repairing the harm and help them heal. RCAO know people harmed (traditionally referred to as victims) are also disproportionately people of color. Humanizing this process requires dedicated staff to personally connect with people who have been impacted throughout the decision-making, response, and conclusion of the process.
Community Participation Level and Impact
RCAO’s initiative to (re)imagine justice for youth is a collaborative effort among the public defender’s office, RCAO, impacted community members, research/youth development and other system partners. RCAO collectively developed this vision to collaboratively review cases, make decisions, and connect more young people to community-based accountability to repair harm, surface needs, and engage in community resources. RCAO is focused on continuous improvement as RCAO collectively guides and shepherds this effort.
☒ Inform ☒ Consult ☐ Involve ☐ Collaborate ☐ Empower
Fiscal Impact
The Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation grant award as well as using salary savings from the County Attorney Office’s budget will fund the requested 1.0 Full-time Equivalent position in 2024 and 2025. Acceptance of this grant will require the establishment of a revenue and expenditure budget in the 2024 budget.
Last Previous Action
None.
Attachments
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