Diversion Programs

The Juvenile Justice System as a History of Diversion

Diversion is what the juvenile justice system is all about. To some, juvenile justice in the United States began in New York City in 1825 as a method of protecting children from the harshness of the criminal justice process of the day. Before that, American courts followed the practices of English courts, which discerned very little difference between juvenile and adult offenders. Not only were adults and juveniles held together prior to trial, they were also incarcerated together in situations where the juveniles were both victimized and tutored in crime by older inmates. This latter situation contributed to the creation of the New York House of Refuge in 1825, where juveniles were expected to be safe from such criminogenic conditions and to learn a trade.

Unlike adult jails or prisons, houses of refuge, or industrial schools (as the houses were sometimes labeled), held both the delinquent youth and the young person in need of protection due to parental neglect and/or abuse. “The articulated purpose of this facility,” according to Eggleston (1999:138–139), “was work and education, with an emphasis on work. Students toiled under a ‘contract system’ where outside employers brought in raw materials for manufacture. There was little time or energy left for schoolwork.” Similar houses of refuge or industrial schools were established over the next 35 years in other large cities, including Boston (1826), Philadelphia (1828), New Orleans (1847), and Cincinnati (1850; Abbott, 1938; Mennel, 1973). The state was now involved in the upbringing of increasing numbers of its children.

The introduction of state-operated facilities for destitute juveniles and young persons in conflict with the law introduced a new concept into the way in which criminal justice was administered in the United States. The state would stand in loco parentis or act in place of the parents in cases that involved juveniles. This practice was a mirror of the English guardianship practices under that country's Poor Laws, which evolved into the doctrine of parens patriae (or “nation as parent”), whereby the state is granted authority to intervene in the lives of children who have little or no parental care and who, due to their lack of development or involvement in delinquent behavior, cannot care for themselves. Unfortunately, for both destitute and delinquent destitute juveniles of the period, the conditions within most juvenile facilities continued to deteriorate to the point where they were as bad or worse than the adult prisons from which the young persons were supposedly diverted.

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