By Rich Williams
A growing number of states are using realignment and reinvestment strategies to reduce their juvenile detention placements amid a growing body of research that community-based alternatives to incarceration are more effective at reducing recidivism and getting better outcomes for youth.
In 2015, Arkansas enacted SB 982, creating the Youth Justice Reform Board to develop and educate the public on a plan to reduce secure confinement for youth who do not present a serious risk to public safety.
The law also requires the board to develop a method for calculating the cost savings to the state. The legislation provides that “the state can realize significant fiscal savings, while positively impacting the lives of youthful offenders” through community-based alternatives.
In June 2015, Ohio’s Department of Youth Correction Services (DYS) celebrated the 20th Anniversary of RECLAIM Ohio, a reinvestment initiative that encourages use of community-based alternatives to juvenile detention with incentive funding.
Since RECLAIM was enacted, DYS has been able to reduce the average daily population of secure facilities from more than 2,600 youth in 1992 to 460 by 2015.
The reduction means that more young people are being served in their home communities where families can participate in the treatment programs. It also means DYS can focus its secure facilities on rehabilitative efforts targeted at youth who pose the highest risk to public safety. A recent study by the University of Cincinnati reports that RECLAIM Ohio is a cost effective solution for the state and achieves better outcomes for kids.
New York State is three years into the launch of the Close to Home initiative, a realignment of juvenile services designed to keep youth from the metropolitan area out of up-state detention facilities and in local placements.
Close to Home shifted responsibility for youth services for all but the most serious offending juveniles from the state Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) to the New York City Administration for Children’s Services. The push to realign services came from a desire to save money and produce positive outcomes for youth.
Under the previous model, the costs of youth justice in New York were high and had increased from $202 million in 2003 to $251 million in 2008, in large part because of the expense of operating state facilities. And an OCFS study found that 66 percent of young people released from state facilities were rearrested within two years.
In March 2015, the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice released a report detailing New York’s history, and early indicators of progress, for realignment. While the report noted it was too early to declare Close to Home a success, it found that policymakers and practitioners are encouraged by its goals and the changes seen since its implementation.
The national trend away from juvenile incarceration has been supported by Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI), which provides evidence-based research and technical assistance for states and localities seeking detention alternatives. JDAI is currently operating in 40 states after being launched in the early 1990s.
For recent legislation addressing realignment and reinvestment strategies visit NCSL’s Juvenile Justice Database.
Rich Williams is a policy specialist in NCSL's Criminal Justice program.
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