NCJ Number
244474
Date Published
2007
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This report examines the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI).
Abstract
This report summarizes the core strategies of Casey's juvenile detention reform initiative, as well as results from four model sites. Results from the model sites show lower detention populations, enhanced public safety, budget savings, and improvements in the overall juvenile justice system. JDAI promotes system wide reform by focusing on a variety of ways to safely reduce reliance on detention, and was designed to demonstrate that jurisdictions could safely reduce reliance on detention while promoting efforts that strengthen the juvenile justice systems overall. JDAI works because it engages multiple stakeholders, including judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, probation officers, elected officials, and community representatives, in the search for more efficient and effective programs, policies, and practices. Sites have shown that they can substantially reduce detention and improve public safety by making smarter, more timely decisions; creating new alternatives to secure confinement; and implementing other data-driven policies and practices that establish system accountability for results.