Office of Juvenile Parole & Transitional Services
The Office of Juvenile Parole and Transitional Services, (JP&TS) is a community-oriented service agency. We are dedicated to sharing responsibilities with our partners in the community to effect successful re-entry of adjudicated youth returning home by providing a balanced approach utilizing care, treatment, accountability, protection and enforcement.
It is estimated that over the next five years, thousands of youths will be released from the Juvenile Justice Commission’s custody to communities throughout New Jersey. JP&TS provides parole supervision to these juvenile offenders and assists them as they transition to home, their neighborhoods and schools through a gradual, planned and purposeful “step-down” parole process. This process seeks to hold parolees accountable for their behavior while simultaneously maximizing opportunities to engage each parolee in a re-entry process that facilitates: family reunification; furthers the parolee’s education; leads to the development of marketable skills; and the development of those normative skills, such as self-disciplined positive goal directed behavior, and moral values that will enable him or her to become a productive, contributing member of the community.
These goals are achieved through collaboration with other JJC organizational units, including the JJC’s Offices of Education, Secure Care, and Community Programs and partnering with community-based service providers. Through these partnerships and collaborations, opportunities for successful re-entry are provided through the following.
“Inside – Outside” Programs and Services
Helping a juvenile prepare for re-entry and community parole supervision begins pre-release and involves a multi-system effort to ensure the individualized re-entry plan considers the risks to public safety and needs of the parolee to succeed on parole. When possible, juveniles are involved pre-release in vocational and employment training opportunities that will transfer outside of the JJC facility. The juvenile and his or her family are encouraged to participate in the re-entry planning process either in person or through the use of video-teleconferencing.
Transitional Services are provided to parolees with the goal of helping each parolee gradually transition home through a series of “step-down” supervised activities. These activities allow the parolee to practice the pro-social skills needed to successfully return to the neighborhood, home and school while under supervision in a variety of environments. Located throughout New Jersey, community-based transitional services include short-term transitional living facilities, day reporting centers, transitional schools, supportive employment opportunities, mentoring and interventions designed to address: gang reduction; family reunification; supporting substance abuse recovery and improving mental and emotional disorders.
