skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Program Keeping Juveniles Out of Detention Celebrates VA Success

play audio
Play

Thursday, April 13, 2017   

RICHMOND, Va. – A program to help keep juvenile offenders out of pre-trial detention is showing big results for Virginia.

The state and some local jurisdictions have worked with The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative since 2003.

Beth Stinnett, program manager for the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice, says using JDAI data and standards, the state has been able to reduce predisposition detention by nearly 60 percent without seeing a rise in new offenses or failures to appear.

More importantly, she says keeping those young people from being locked up at the front end can change their trajectory for life.

"Placing them in secure detention, we disconnect them from their pro-social peers, their pro-social adults,” she points out. “We interrupt their schooling. We do absolutely run the risk that we're doing more harm than good."

JDAI is turning 25 this weekend. In the last quarter century, it's become part of a national movement to reform juvenile justice, with a huge impact in Virginia and around the country.

Nate Balis, director of the Juvenile Justice Strategy Group with the Casey Foundation, says states are doing a better job of figuring out which young offenders need to be locked up, and which can wear an ankle monitor or check in at a day reporting center. He says across the country, JDAI means 3,800 fewer young people locked up on any given night.

"JDAI has proven to be a no-brainer for jurisdictions around the country,” he states. “It is not a jail break. It's something that allows for jurisdictions to make sure that we're not holding kids one day more than they need to be."

JDAI has helped Virginia in a long-term project to reform the states' whole juvenile-justice system, according to Jenna Easton, statewide JDAI coordinator for the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice. And she says detention can be 10 times as expensive as the alternatives.

"Not only does putting kids in detention unnecessarily increase their likelihood of re-offending, it also is not a cost effective approach to working with kids," she states.

Easton says it's important to reduce detentions at the front end of the juvenile justice system, because lower numbers there tend to carry all the way through.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
A report from the Tennessee HealthCare Campaign recommended the federal government needs to strengthen 340B drug pricing and other federal negotiation mechanisms to make needed medicines more readily available and less expensive for hospitals to purchase and administer. (Spotmatikphoto/AdobeStock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A recent report examined how some rural Tennessee hospitals have managed to stay afloat despite financial challenges. The report includes interviews …


Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …


Organizations fighting wage theft said it harms affected workers and surrounding communities because the money withheld is not being circulated through the local economy. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

Social Issues

play sound

A 2023 study from the University of Nebraska Medical Center concluded the number of Nebraskans with a mental health or substance abuse disorder has pr…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021