TRENTON – The Annie E. Casey Foundation recently released a publication detailing New Jersey’s successful implementation of the Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI). As a result of the dramatic decreases in the use of secure detention, New Jersey is recognized as a national leader in juvenile justice reform. By safely reducing its reliance on detention for low-level youthful offenders, and fostering opportunities for positive youth transformation, New Jersey has become the model for states across the country seeking to transform their juvenile justice systems.
A decade ago many county-operated detention centers were exceeding their maximum capacities even while juvenile arrest rates were plunging. As a result, New Jersey applied to the Annie E. Casey Foundation to be accepted as a replication site for its nationally recognized detention reform program - the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative. Originally implemented in five pilot counties in New Jersey, the Juvenile Justice Commission (JJC) utilizes an annual $200,000 grant from the Foundation to expand the initiative statewide.
“Over the past ten years, New Jersey has institutionalized the principles of JDAI and has intrinsically transformed the use of secure juvenile detention,” said Nate Balis, director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Justice Strategy Group. “JDAI in New Jersey,” helps readers understand the crisis that New Jersey faced, the leadership that was necessary to obtain the support of local stakeholders, and the efforts to sustain this reform in New Jersey.”
“We are grateful to the Casey Foundation for supporting the JDAI initiative in New Jersey,” said Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court Stuart Rabner. “This successful program has brought important reform to the juvenile justice system and has profoundly affected many young people by sparing them from unnecessary detention.”
“While the ability to detain someone should never be taken lightly, it is even more significant when we talk about young people because of the severe impact secure detention has proven to have on their development and future actions,” said Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman. “Through JDAI, New Jersey has established a fair and consistent approach to juvenile justice, while maintaining public safety and saving the State, and participating counties, millions of dollars. It is a government initiative that can truly prove it is working.”
Through a set of eight core strategies, JDAI helps the entire juvenile justice system more accurately identify which youth require confinement in order to minimize risks to the community, and holds the system accountable for public safety results. A primary goal of JDAI is to make sure that secure detention is used only for serious and chronic youthful offenders, and that effective alternatives are available for other youth who can be safely supervised in the community while awaiting final court disposition.
The JJC is the lead agency for JDAI in New Jersey, providing the management and staffing infrastructure integral to New Jersey’s success as a JDAI site. The New Jersey Judiciary is a critical partner in this work, and with the JJC, has provided the leadership needed to achieve the success that has brought New Jersey national recognition. While nationally JDAI is operational in more than 250 local jurisdictions spanning 39 states, New Jersey is the only state to be designated a national model for detention reform. This designation was bestowed upon NJ in late 2008 as a result of the impressive outcomes New Jersey has achieved since JDAI inception.
“The publication “JDAI in New Jersey” tells the story of the success that began with a partnership between the Juvenile Justice Commission and the NJ Courts. Ten years later, JDAI is implemented in 18 counties and has reduced the secure detention of New Jersey’s youth by more than 60%,” said Kevin M. Brown, Executive Director, New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission.
Participating counties include: Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Essex, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Union, Warren, Gloucester, Sussex, and Cape May.
Significant cost-savings have been realized as the result of JDAI in New Jersey. The excess space created by significant population reductions has allowed several counties to close their detention centers and share detention services with other counties. At the start of JDAI, there were 17 detention centers operating in New Jersey; today there are eleven. Shared-services agreements have resulted in approximately $16 million in annual cost savings for the sending counties and substantial revenue increases for the receiving counties.
Declining juvenile arrests continue to confirm that these young people can safely remain in their communities, thus demonstrating that JDAI is an effective public safety strategy. Additionally, across the JDAI sites, 96% of youth completed their alternative placement without a new delinquency charge.
More information can be found at: www.aecf.org/blog/juvenile-justice-reforms-in-new-jersey-chronicled-in-annie-e-casey-foundat/
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