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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Montana’s Youth Incarceration Rate Drops

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013   

MISSOULA, Mont. - The number of youths behind bars in Montana has dropped, mirroring a nationwide trend.

A report released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows that the rate of incarceration for young people in Montana was down 28 percent from 1997 to 2010.

It didn't happen by accident, said Thale Dillon, director of economic research for Montana Kids Count. She credited the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative at the Department of Corrections as one reason why the numbers declined.

"Reform of sorts of the youth court system in the state," she said, "focusing on keeping juveniles out of confinement."

The report noted a "sea of change" in how juvenile offenders are treated, in recognition that imprisonment isn't effective - plus, it's expensive. Dillon said more work still needs to be done in Montana so that nonviolent offenders never are locked up.

Even with fewer youths being incarcerated, said Laura Speer, the Casey Foundation's associate director for policy and research, three-quarters of them are there for minor offenses that don't pose a risk to the public.

"They have a chance to get their lives back on track," she said, "and so we want to make sure they get put in the best possible program to get them back on track."

Alternatives to prison include substance abuse and mental health treatment and behavioral therapy.

The report said 303 youths were incarcerated in Montana in 1997, a number that dropped to 192 in 2010.

The report, “Reducing Youth Incarceration in the United States,” is online at aecf.org.




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