|
Doing better by kids
 Dakota County is joining an initiative designed to help kids. Beginning last Tuesday, youth entering the juvenile justice system in Dakota County will have a completely different experience than they would have a year or even six months ago.
Dakota County – along with local agencies and community organizations – has reformed all aspects of the way they work with youth in the juvenile justice system with support of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative.
The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative is one of the nation’s most effective and widespread juvenile justice system reform efforts. It is designed to keep youth offenders out of locked detention facilities by creating ways to supervise low-risk offenders in the community.
In the past, secured detention was the primary option for supervising youth offenders. Through implementing the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, Dakota County and local agencies have different community options to help keep low-risk and non-violent youth offenders out of secure detention. Detention alternative options help provide an environment where youth can succeed, while protecting public safety as space is available for more serious youth offenders.
Decreasing the number of youth in secured detention also cuts costs. It’s expensive to keep kids locked-up. Community-based supervision alternatives cost one-third that of secured detention.
Dakota County has taken the reform efforts beyond just those aimed at decreasing the number of low risk youth offenders in secure detention centers to improving all aspects of the juvenile justice system, from streamlining how information on youth offenders is obtained, to increasing community collaboration to improving the services provided to youth offenders.
Communities across the country have seen great success through implementing the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative – decreasing the number of youth offenders in detention, decreasing juvenile crime rates, fostering successful youth and saving money. Dakota County expects similar results.
|
Attachments 
This page was last updated on: 04/02/2010
|
|