The Civitas ChildLaw Center of the Loyola University School of Law will coordinate up to $7.5 million in grants over the next five years in support of promising models for juvenile justice reform in Illinois.

The Models for Change initiative, an--nounced last month by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, names Illinois as one of four states with “strong juvenile justice leadership, potential for collaboration, ongoing reform efforts, and readiness for change.”

Civitas will be able too provide grants of up to $1.5 million annually for five years to state and local agencies, not-for-profit organizations and other entities who are engaged in three areas of reform.

First is Juvenile Court Jurisdiction, in support of efforts to ensure the individualized and developmentally appropriate handling of young people accused of crime.

The MacArthur announcement noted that while the juvenile court was established in 1899 in Illinois, its “boundaries of authority have become blurred as these courts are increasingly asked to step in where schools, communities and families once exercised authority.”

Second is Community-Based Alternatives to Secure Confinement, such as Redeploy Illinois, a state program that offers incentives for counties to provide services to non-violent juvenile offenders locally rather than through the state correctional system.

Third is Disproportionate Minority Contact with the Juvenile Justice System, an anomaly that was explored by the ISBA in “Kids in a Jam,” a program conducted during the Midyear Meeting last December in Chicago.

The Models for Change initiative calls for eliminating racial disparities in juvenile justice through programs that focus on enhancing data collection and usage to raise public awareness and motivate change.

The MacArthur Foundation announcement lauded recent legislation that created a new Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice and eliminated the automatic transfer of 15- and 16-year-old drug offenders into the adult criminal system.

The Civitas ChildLaw Center is directed by Loyola Law Prof. Diane C. Geraghty, a Laureate of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers and member of the ISBA Juvenile Justice Section Council.