County officials are hoping that a new program that helps keep youths out of detention facilities could also end up saving taxpayers money.
Albany County announced on Wednesday, Jan. 22, it would be taking part in the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI) aimed at reducing the number of young people placed in secure and non-secure detention facilities, along with enacting reforms to the juvenile justice system. The state Office of Children and Family Services’ Division of Juvenile Justice Opportunities for Youth selected the county as one of six sites statewide to participate in JDAI.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said the county Department for Children, Youth and Families has been a leader in developing policies to improve the justice system and “ensure that our youth can turn their lives around.”
The JDAI program will help the county lower detention costs, McCoy said, while enacting new procedures to reduce repeat offenders and maintain public safety. The Annie E. Casey Foundation is sponsoring the program.
“This is such an exciting initiative,” county Deputy Executive Philip Calderone said. “This a great community, a very supportive community for children.”
Albany County Family Court Supervising Judge Gerard Maney said he was pleased with what the county has already achieved in collaborating with Family Court to develop better outcomes for juveniles accused of crimes.
“The children that we serve … are in crisis,” Maney said. “They need help from top to bottom, and the only way we are going to do that is providing the necessary services so they can become productive adults.”
From 2008 to 2012, secure and non-secure detention countywide was reduced annually by around 25 percent, or from 329 admissions to 251. The amount of young men at the facilities was reduced by 33 percent, with young women seeing a 6 percent reduction.
There was a stark difference when looking at the change across races, with white youth detention dropping by 55 percent as black youths were reduced by 2 percent. There was a 12 percent decline for black youths in non-secure detention, but secure detention increased 14 percent, according to data provided by the Office of Children and Family Services Bureau of Research, Evaluation and Performance Analytics.
A secure detention facility is locked down, and non-secure facility does not require a juvenile to be locked down or confined, but they are monitored, such as with a group home.
Maney said the case processing has already been streamlined, the length of detentions reduced and a rapid assessment was developed for children to meet with psychologists.
“We have a lot more to do,” Maney said. “The Casey Foundation is going to give us the challenge and the opportunity to continue the good work that we are doing.”
LaSalle School Executive Director Bill Wolff said funds allocated to new preventive measures would have a long-term effect of saving the county money. The initiative also has existed for more than two decades and has been successful in other areas of the country, according to county officials.
Wolff said the “common value” between all of the partners involved in the local program has been the “improved wellbeing” of the community as a whole.
“I believe a significant component of really moving ahead … involves reaching a new level of relationships between our entities,” Wolff said. “We need to move from being characterized as primarily transactional to what might best be called transformational.”