SWEEPING REFORMS
Juvenile Reinvestment Grants Awarded to 44 Counties Community Diversion Programs Funded for GA Juvenile Justice
Even before the new Juvenile Justice Reform Law begins moving DJJ operations in positive new directions in January 2014, new community-based diversion programs will begin moving Georgia’s troubled youth away from juvenile detention sentences and reoccurring juvenile recidivism rates.
Critical youth intervention programs in 44 Georgia counties have received new state awards totaling $4.7 million dollars from an innovative program called Juvenile Reinvestment. The Reinvestment Grants, awarded through Georgia’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) and the Governor’s Office for Children and Families (GOCF) are part of sweeping reforms restructuring the state juvenile justice system.
One of the goals behind the new reforms was to reduce Georgia’s rate of recidivism for juveniles released from detention. Historically, more than half the juvenile offenders in Georgia have returned to a detention center or prison within three years. About 65-percent of youth released from DJJ detention proceed to commit more crimes.
Governor Nathan Deal made a commitment to reduce this recidivism rate by offering grants to counties to fund their evidence-based programs and services which are proven to be effective in preventing delinquent behavior and reducing recidivism.
The State of Georgia committed $5 million, plus another $1 million from a federal grant, to fund these programs for young offenders. The funded programs will provide community-focused, evidence-based services that will reduce out-of-home placement of Georgia youth.
The $6M is based on 12 months of service so awards are proportionate to service levels. For these first year grants, the award period will be for less than a full year since the 11 month grant has only 9 months of actual evidence-based services and a two-month implementation period from August 1, 2013-June 30-2014.
More than 1.6 million at-risk youth in Georgia will be served through these community-focused intervention programs.That means more than 69-percent of Georgia’s at-risk juvenile population will be reached with these new evidence-based services during the very first year the state’s grant program is in action.
$3,932,435 in grants came from the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) in the form of 16 awards to meet the service needs of 19 Georgia counties.
Another $676,648 in grants came from the Governor’s Office for Children & Families (GOCF) in the form of 8 awards to serve the program needs of 25 Georgia counties.
$4.7 million dollars in Juvenile Reinvestment Grants has been awarded to serve the at-risk youth population needs of 44 counties in Georgia. About a dozen of those counties are being served in the Atlanta Metro Area alone.
By moving some non-violent youth into these diversion programs, it allows judges to focus attention on more serious offenders who need to be incarcerated. Once a teen enters these new diversion programs, the courts can still monitor the offender’s progress to see if they will need to be placed in detention.
Essentially, the new evidence-based programs will take the low-risk youth, assess the risk factors that impact juvenile offenders in their environment, and teach them how to make better choices. These proven programs evaluate the offenders’ progress with the goal of keeping youth out of the criminal justice system and thereby reducing the high cost of juvenile detention.
Evidence-based programs under development for youth in the Atlanta Metro Area communities include the following:
“Thinking for a Change” in Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, and Rockdale Counties;
“Aggression Replacement Training” in Cobb, Douglas, Fulton Hall and Henry Counties;
“Functional Family Therapy” in Cherokee, Clayton, Coweta, DeKalb, Fulton, Hall and Rockdale Counties;
“Multisystemic Therapy” in Fulton and Gwinnett Counties;
And “Seven Challenges” in Cherokee, DeKalb and Hall Counties.
The following grants were awarded by the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC):
Athens-Clarke: $100,000 Augusta-Richmond: $250,000
Chatham: $432,435 Clayton: $200,000
Coweta: $150,000 Columbia: $100,000
Columbus (Muscogee): $400,000 DeKalb: $400,000
Dougherty: $300,000 Fulton: $300,000
Gwinnett: $400,000 Houston: $250,000
Hall: $200,000 Lowndes: $200,000
Troup: $100,000
These grant awards are pending budget revisions:
Bibb (Macon): $400,000 Cobb: $300,000
Douglas: $100,000 Glynn: $150,000
Henry: $100,000
These are awards offered by the Governor’s Office of Children and Families (GOCF):
Camden: $49,000 Cherokee: $100,000
Clay (Pataula Circuit): $100,000 Fayette: $59,800
Forsyth: $80,288 Lumpkin (Enotah Circuit): $100,000
Walker (Lookout Mountain Circuit): $100,000
The Governor’s grants will allow Georgia to offer intensive intervention to many youth who might otherwise have been committed to detention facilities at an annual taxpayer cost of more than $90-thousand dollars a year.
The goal of Georgia’s Juvenile Reinvestment Grant Awards is to provide community-focused, evidence-based services to reduce the unnecessary out of home placement of youth who are better served in their own communities.