Troubled Kids
TROUBLED KIDS
Getting Juvenile Justice Reform Right in New York: Proven interventions will save money and cut crime
Too many New York juveniles are becoming chronic, violent criminals. Fortunately, most youth arrested do not come back to court again. But when youth exhibit serious behavioral problems and begin to engage in criminal activity, there are individualized intervention strategies that work with the youth and his family that can steer them back on track such as Functional Family Therapy (FFT), Multisystemic Therapy (MST) and Multi-Dimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC) for those kids who cannot remain in their family environment. Unfortunately, there is only a small number of MST, FFT or MTFC programs across the state, not nearly enough to meet the need.
A primary goal of the juvenile justice system should be to reduce our reliance on incarceration. Locking youth up doesn't work very well for most kids and should be the last resort, triggered only by public safety concerns. The research shows that those kids who pose little threat to public safety are much better served by programs provided to them and their parents in their own community, such as FFT, MST, MTFC. These programs are effective in giving youth the tools they need to turn their lives around and get back on track. Analysis shows that research-based approaches for cutting juvenile aggression and substance abuse problems reduce current custody costs and future crime so much they can save an average of $15,000 to $75,000 per delinquent.
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids New York calls on New York Policy Makers to:
• Reduce pretrial detention for low-risk youth following arrest.
• Combine community sanctions with effective interventions as an alternative to incarceration for many youth.
• Provide effective interventions to youth in custody to become
productive citizens instead of career criminals.
• Collect data and increase program accountability for reducing crime
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