Juvenile Accountabiliy Block Grant
What it is: The Juvenile Accountability Block Grant (JABG) provides grants to states and localities to implement programs that strengthen the juvenile justice system. The Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-162) included the most recent reauthorization of this program for Fiscal Years 2006-2009. By implementing a system of graduated sanctions for juvenile offenders, JABG grants help promote accountability in the juvenile justice system and prevent crime. JABG supports state and local juvenile justice approaches ranging from secure juvenile corrections for some serious and violent offenders, to effective community-based residential treatment programs for offenders who do not need to be locked up, to substance abuse and mental health services for non-violent offenders remaining at home, to school safety programs.
How it works: The U.S. Department of Justices Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention administers grants to states, which are required to distribute at least 75 percent of the funding to units of local government.
Why its important: JABG supports intervention programs aimed at reducing recidivism and rehabilitating adjudicated youth. Many juvenile court judges are faced with very limited sentencing (or disposition) options for a delinquency case (e.g., lock up or probation), and often neither is appropriate in that case. JABG can help states and communities to expand that range of options and ensure that the most effective approach can be used for each case. By strengthening the juvenile justice system and deterring youth from committing more serious crimes, JABG makes our neighborhoods safer and saves lives. JABG supports research-proven programs such as the Functional Family Therapy program, which has been shown to cut rates of re-arrest in half by intervening with families to teach them how to better control their childrens behavior.
Overwhelming unmet need: Every year, 1.4 million kids are charged with an offense for which an adult could be tried in a criminal court. It is estimated that Functional Family Therapy serves an extremely small proportion of serious offenders who could benefit from it.
Fiscally responsible: A cost-benefit analysis of Functional Family Therapy demonstrates that this program produces net public savings of roughly $32,000 per juvenile treated.
Legislative Recommendations: FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS recommends that Congress continue to strengthen the Juvenile Accountability Block Grant during this years reauthorization process by increasing the funding authorization and by directing federal funds toward proven-effective intervention approaches.
For more information, please contact Nick Alexander at (202) 464-7014 or mnalexander@fightcrime.org
