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TROUBLED KIDS POLICY

Identify and Help Troubled Kids Early on to Get Back on Track.
Today in Illinois there is a problem with disastrous consequences for public safety, about 3,000 juveniles are committed to a state facility every year and, after they are released, 73% of them are arrested again within two years.  Fifty-seven per cent of them wind up right behind those same bars within three years.  The good news is that there are many evidence-based approaches that can reduce rearrests of juveniles, increase public safety, and save money. 

2008 (FY09) Policy Recommendations:

A.     Support the New Department of Juvenile Justice.
1.  Allocate approximately $7.4 million to allow the new department to hire aftercare (parole) workers dedicated to young offenders.  This funding level should be sufficient to hire 74 aftercare workers, one for every 24 of the 1,800 youth who are on parole at any given time in Illinois.
2.   Support implementation of the recommendations detailed in the DJJ funded consultants report.  We urge that the final report be made public soon and also urge that the Governor and the General Assembly adopt a timeline for implementation of the recommendations. 
3.    Appoint a permanent director be for the Department of Juvenile Justice.  The current “acting director” operates with one hand tied behind his back.  Without a permanent director little progress will be made to transform the current system.

B.   Community-based interventions with troubled youth.   Effective community-based interventions are essential if we are to turn the lives of troubled youth around.  The following are the interventions we are monitoring and working to improve, because of the promise they show:
1.   Redeploy Illinois –Support expansion to more counties and high quality programming.  Redeploy Illinois gives counties funds they can use for intensive community based interventions with troubled youth that they would otherwise not be able to afford.

• Assuring High Quality.   We urge the administrators of Redeploy to collect the data needed to demonstrate the program’s effectiveness and continue to urge that preference be given to evidence-based programs.
• Funding.  We support an increase in the FY09 budget for Redeploy Illinois in the Illinois Department of Human Services.  The increase should be enough to bring on at least 2 additional sites, make it possible to market the program to counties throughout the state, and put in place effective evaluation systems. 

2.   Other community-based interventions with troubled youth.  In addition to Redeploy, the following are community-based interventions that we believe deserve continued funding in FY 2008:
(1) Mental Health Juvenile Justice (MHJJ) Initiative within the Division of Mental Health, Illinois Department of Human Services, (2) local efforts to reduce the use of secure detention for youth who do not pose a serious risk to their communities (including the Juvenile Detentions Alternative Initiative), (3) Youth Courts, and (4) the Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership.