NCJ Number
239883
Date Published
May 2012
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This report from the National Juvenile Justice Network presents a toolkit for retaining funds for youth programming resulting from the sale or lease of juvenile facilities.
Abstract
Research over the years has shown that locking up delinquent youth in State prisons and juvenile correctional facilities actually does more harm than good and increases the rates of recidivism among these youth. As such, many States have begun to close or have closed the large facilities. The National Juvenile Justice Network has found however, that the money saved by closing these facilities does not often follow the youth it was intended to help in the first place. This toolkit offers information to interested stakeholders who wish to ensure that the money saved from a facility closure "follows the youth" back to their home communities. The toolkit guides youth advocates through the process of drafting a bill that would require State legislatures to capture some or all of the proceeds from the sale of a closed juvenile correctional facility and invest these dollars back into youth programming. The sections of the toolkit include How to Write Your Own Statute; What is the Current Procedure of your State for the sale of real property; Drafting Your Own Statute; Model Statutory Language; and Survey of Existing Law.