Technical Assistance and Training

Probation and Youth Justice System Enhancement

For more than twenty years, TYJ Managing Director and experienced consultants have used a proven framework to conduct a comprehensive youth justice system analysis and review, examining opportunities and challenges at every key decision point in 40 state and local jurisdictions to enhance probation department and youth justice system performance. The technical assistance/consultation partnerships have produced positive, replicable, measurable, and sustainable enhancements in system performance and youth outcomes. The premise for the work is built on localized opportunities to achieve shared and compatible goals of youth accountability, reduction of recidivism, and future risk of delinquent behavior, desirable behavior changes for youth in multiple domains, and improved community safety. The Probation and Youth Justice System Review, pioneered by the TYJ Consulting Managing Director, remains the seminal publication guiding the technical assistance partnership with jurisdictional leaders and multi-discipline stakeholders. TYJ Consulting is immediately available to explore opportunities to apply this approach and methodologies in support of the positive transformation of youth justice practice in your jurisdiction.

Probation and Youth Justice System Review Guidebook

Prepared by John A. Tuell, and with support from Jodi Martin and Sorrel Lewis (RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice, 2023 (revised))

Dual Status Youth Initiatives

While serving as the Director of the newly created Juvenile Justice Division at the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) in 2002, the TYJ Managing Director authored the seminal framework to guide multi-agency collaboration particularly among child welfare and probation/court agencies to achieve systemic reform on behalf of dual status youth – young people involved with both the child welfare and youth justice systems – and their families. As fully applied in more than 30 state and local jurisdictions over the past 25 years, the framework ensures a tailored and collaborative approach to guide and drive youth-serving systems and multi-disciplinary partners in identifying, implementing, and sustaining policy and practice reforms that enhance system performance and make a positive impact on an often vulnerable and challenging population of children, youth, and families within their communities. In partnership with the jurisdictions we serve, TYJ Consulting facilitates the collaborative technical assistance process through our commitment to adolescent development science, best-practice methods and approaches, and evidence-based treatment and services. Impressive results that are sustainable, measurable, and replicable are the hallmarks of the process detailed in the Dual Status Youth — Technical Assistance Workbook, Updated Edition (2021) and the Dual Status Youth Program Evaluation Design used to facilitate the partnership with state and local partners.


Dual Status Youth — Technical Assistance Workbook, Updated Edition

RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice, 2021


Dual Status Youth Program Evaluation Design

This resource offers jurisdictions a straightforward 4-step blueprint to evaluate the implementation and impact of their DSY practices, ensuring their programs are both effective and sustainable. Key focus areas include assessing program fidelity, evaluating outcomes, and providing long-term capacity for ongoing evaluation, 2023

Diversion and Alternatives to Formal Intervention

TYJ Consulting’s Managing Director authored the Diversion and Alternatives Reform Team (DART) Guidebook to support state and local jurisdictions opportunities to develop or enhance their system of alternative responses to formal prosecution. The guidance delivered within the 5 step process supports the creation of a comprehensive system of diversionary practices and collaborative system approaches among all relevant and necessary community partners and youth serving agencies that will collectively protect public safety, ensure accountability, and take advantage of restorative justice principles through a robust system of alternatives to formal prosecution to produce positive youth outcomes.


TYJ Consulting, in partnership with a designated set of stakeholders providing localized leadership, experience, and expertise to ensure:

1. sustainable opportunities to preserve limited probation and court resources for the population of youth who do require ongoing oversight (right-sizing caseloads)

2. minimizing entry into the youth justice system for youth who may be held accountable more effectively through evidence-informed alternative services and community-based interventions

3. maximizing of opportunities to produce, sustain and effectively measure positive outcomes for low and moderate risk youth


Diversion and Alternatives Reform Team Guidebook, Prepared by John A. Tuell, Executive Director, RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice, 2023

Residential and Correctional Facility Review/Assessment

The proven framework used to conduct a comprehensive youth justice system analysis and review, examining opportunities and challenges at every key decision point in 40 state and local jurisdictions to enhance probation department and youth justice system performance effectively provides the components for the examination of operations, policies, practices, and training for residential and correctional facilities in this focus area of the TYJ Consulting. In the past five years, the Managing Director of TYJ Consulting and expert consultants have conducted multiple facility/system reviews in local and state jurisdictions. As with the significant impact achieved through the Probation and Youth Justice System Reviews and its guiding publication, the technical assistance/consultation partnerships have produced positive, replicable, measurable, and sustainable enhancements in system performance and youth outcomes. Once again, the premise for the work is built on localized opportunities to achieve shared and compatible goals of youth accountability, reduction of recidivism, and future risk of delinquent behavior, desirable behavior changes for youth in multiple domains, effective operations and management of secure and correctional facilities for youth, enhanced re-entry planning, and improved community safety. TYJ Consulting is immediately available to explore opportunities to apply this approach and methodologies in support of the positive transformation of youth justice practice in your jurisdiction.


Probation and Youth Justice System Review Guidebook

Prepared by John A. Tuell, and with support from Jodi Martin and Sorrel Lewis (RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice, 2023 (revised))