FULFILLING THE MANDATE OF ACT 1225: Crafting a comprehensive plan to - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

FULFILLING THE MANDATE OF ACT 1225:

Crafting a comprehensive plan to allocate juvenile justice resources, reduce reliance on incarceration, and provide community-based services statewide

www.laccr.org

Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights 2

Act 1225 established the JJIC and charged it with creating a plan for juvenile justice reform

Among other things, the powers and duties of the JJIC include: “The commission … shall address such issues as…the development of a comprehensive plan to reduce the over reliance on secure incarceration and provide community-based services including a time schedule for statewide implementation for the plan.”

• La. R.S. § 46:2755

Currently, there is no comprehensive plan to ensure we are fulfilling the mandate of this landmark legislation

Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights 3

500 1000 1500 2000 Daily Populations in OJJ Secure Care*

2000 - Present

Act 1225

12000-2011 data is the average daily population as reported by the Institute for Public Health

and Justice to the JJIC in 2013. Recent data is the population in secure care on February 1, 2015 as reported in OJJ’s monthly demographic report available on the agency’s website

The number of youth in secure care dropped dramatically with the passage of Act 1225

Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights 4 560 490

2006 2011

Change in Secure Care ADP

But since Act 1225, the use of secure care has not declined nearly as much as the juvenile crime rate

7510 4511

2005 2011

Change in LA

• Juv. Arrests2

6280 4396

2005 2011

Change in U.S.

• Juv. Arrest Rate3

1547 842

2008 2014

Change in New Orleans Juv. Arrests4

13% 40% 30% 46%

2Based on statistics collected by the Louisiana Commission of Law Enforcement based on the Uniform Crime Reporting

• system. Only certain offenses are included and not all law enforcement agencies report each year.

3Rate per 1,000 4Data is only available starting in 2008

Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights 5

Despite closing two secure facilities since 2003, our capacity for incarceration still outpaces crime rates

• Louisiana has the capacity to house a total of 1,299 youth per day in

short-term detention centers and longer-term nonsecure and secure care facilities. This has the potential to cost taxpayers more than $141 million each year.5

• OJJ recently broke ground on a new 72 bed facility, with plans for

another 72 bed facility to begin construction in the near future.

• Given the huge costs, it is imperative that the state have as few juvenile

justice beds as is necessary. It is also a good public safety strategy. Yet, there are few mechanisms in place to prevent the system from adding more beds, thereby spending millions of additional dollars on unnecessary incarceration as juvenile arrests continue to fall here and across the country.

5Based on the most recent information available from the Office of the Legislative Auditor and the Department of Children

and Family Services

Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights 6

It is time to return to Act 1225’s mandate for a system- wide plan to ensure reduced reliance on confinement

• Development of a replicable, comprehensive data dashboard to get

a better sense of the characteristics of youth who are being incarcerated, and what will be needed to serve them more effectively in the community

• A critical look at all components of the system – this is bigger than

the Office of Juvenile Justice

• A forum to make recommendations based on the findings from this

data that can ultimately shape legislation as well as state and local level policy changes

What will it take?

Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights 7

NEXT STEPS

• LCCR will partner with OJJ and the Institute for Public Health and

Justice to plan for the development of a comprehensive data report

• Report back to the JJIC with a more detailed plan
• Convene system stakeholders to inform the analysis and identify

solutions

• Report regularly to the JJIC as the recommendations are taking

shape

• Provide a final report prior to the 2016 legislative session