Juvenile Offenders Community Health Services (JOCHS) is an initiative to promote the positive role of health care in the lives of children and adolescents who are brought to juvenile detention facilities. Our goal is to connect youth who are brought to detention centers with health care services provided by community health care centers. We encourage partners and policymakers to view detention as an opportunity to rethink health care delivery for all children and youth in their jurisdiction, and to provide care that is age-appropriate and culturally sensitive, and reflects local standards. By bringing community health care providers into juvenile detention centers, JOCHS seeks to build bridges between juveniles and their communities and to establish stable medical homes for juveniles in their communities.

Guiding Principles of JOCHS

JOCHS has three guiding principles:

• Community: Juveniles are not separate from their communities; they are a part of them, even when they are temporarily placed in detention centers. Community means creating a health care delivery system for all children and youth that includes prevention and education, multiple entry points for care, and community-based behavioral health assessment and treatment options for youth.
• Connectivity: Detention centers can help connect juveniles in new ways with existing community services, such as health care, counseling, and addiction treatment. When probation agencies engage the services of community health providers that deliver care in the broader community, youth have the opportunity to receive the care they need where they need it (in detention or in community clinics) and when they need it (before, during, or after detention).
• Continuity: As part of the community, detention centers can serve as a starting point for building enduring relationships between juveniles and community service providers that support young people’s ongoing rehabilitation and development. Continuity is dependent on whether and how connectivity has been established between the juvenile detention center and community health providers. Interagency collaboration is key to establishing the framework for continuity of care in the community.

The ultimate goals of these principles are to support rehabilitation, improve public health and public safety, and reduce recidivism by creating stable connections for juveniles within their communities.

Building on a Pioneering Approach

JOCHS applies a concept similar to that developed for adult jails by its partner organization, Community Oriented Correctional Health Services (COCHS), which fosters partnerships between local jails and community health centers. Alameda County, CA, pioneered a similar, integrated approach to juvenile health and support services that became the inspiration for JOCHS.

Alameda’s experience to date in establishing medical homes for at-risk youth, decreasing out-of-facility transfers for medical reasons, and lowering violence within the Juvenile Justice Center led The California Endowment, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Community Clinics Initiative of Tides to support JOCHS.