Initiative touts detention options
By Briana Alzola
Staff writer
Adams County Juvenile Services (ACJS) has received a $50,000 grant to implement a new plan to avoid incarceration of low-risk offenders.
The funding, obtained from the Washington State Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee, comes as part of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI).
“We are offering low-risk kids the opportunity to account for their actions without involving them in detention,” ACJS Administrator Juan Garza said.
Low-risk juveniles are defined as individuals who don’t commit violent crimes, harm people or property. These youths were generally brought in for minor drug and alcohol charges, running away from home and truancy.
“We are developing a risk assessment tool to tell us whether the kid is low risk or not,” Garza said.
Keeping violent offenders away from people with lesser crimes is important, he said.
“We don’t want to mix high risk with low risk,” Garza said. “The high risk people are in detention and if the low risk kids are in there, they make friends and learn about things they shouldn’t be doing.”
It also provides a lot of other benefits, he said.
“JDAI provides the opportunity for these kids to not go to detention and to stay in school,” Garza said. “They can keep up with their work and great things can happen.”
The initiative, sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is present in eight counties around Washington state. It also has a national presence.
“Sixteen other states have implemented this initiative,” Garza said. “There are eight others on the waiting list.”
The initiative focuses on programs like community service, electronic monitoring, alternative schools and evening and weekend programs for juveniles.
Some of these programs have not been available before, Garza said.
“Currently, only high-risk kids have evening and weekend programming,” he said.
All of these programs help teach the youth, Garza said.
“They will understand the significance of being good citizens and role models in the community,” he said.
Less time in detention, Garza said, also translates to fewer dollar being spent by the county.
“It’s not only a money saver but a kid saver,” he said.
Garza said he is excited about implementing the initiative.
“We want to break their cycle of crime and this gives us another opportunity to do that,” he said.
In order to accomplish these goals, ACJS will receive another $50,000 next year and an additional $30,000 each year after that.
The funding will also allow ACJS to hire a detention alternative coordinator, Garza said.
One thing this coordinator will help with is the collection of data to determine what kind of effect the program is having on the community.
“I look forward to establishing enough data to prove this works in Adams County,” Garza said.
Securing the grant money was a joint effort.
“I want to thank Adams County Commissioners Roger Hartwig, Rudy Plager and Jeff Stevens and Adams County Superior Court Judge Richard W. Miller, ACJS staff and members of the Adams County Community Network, who all reviewed the initiative and lent their support to the effort,” Garza said.
Short URL: http://othellooutlook.com/?p=12932
Posted by Briana
on Jul 28 2010. Filed under Adams County, Community.
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