NCJ Number
231603
Date Published
2007
Length
80 pages
Annotation
This report documents how in three model sites - Cook County (Chicago), IL; Multnomah County (Portland), OR; and Santa Cruz County, CA - the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) has sparked a wide range of juvenile justice reforms and program improvements throughout the continuum of juvenile justice programs and services.
Abstract
Since implementing the principles of JDAI - whose purpose is to demonstrate that jurisdictions can establish more effective and efficient systems to accomplish the purposes of juvenile detention - each of the three jurisdiction has dramatically reduced the number of youth sentenced to youth corrections facilities, and one jurisdiction has also significantly reduced the number of youth with mental health problems placed in residential treatment centers. The sites have developed a range of new community-based programs, enabling youth to remain at home while connecting them to culturally sensitive services and resources within their own neighborhoods. In addition, each site has adopted objective decisionmaking tools that ensure youth are treated equally and linked to appropriate treatments and services. Further, the sites have become more adept at collecting and analyzing data required to monitor outcomes and improve programming. Systemwide the sites have expanded the degree of collaboration among the agencies involved in juvenile justice, enabling local systems to better understand and address the needs of court-involved youth. This report provides a detailed presentation of how JDAI has led to these and other improvements in areas of juvenile justice "beyond detention." 9 figures and a listing of the 14 publications in the Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform series