Nation - Louisiana Juvenile detention reform helps ease overcrowding Center had to rethink how juvenile justice does business

By Loresha Wilson The Times SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) -- Caddo Juvenile Detention Center's small cell blocks are reserved mostly for teens charged with armed robbery, sex crimes and other violent felony offenses. Despite a reported increase in younger, more violent criminals on the streets of Shreveport -- including two teen girls charged with the attempted murder of a 70-year-old youth center worker -- the facility houses fewer juveniles per day than it has in years. In Caddo Juvenile Detention Center, the daily occupancy dropped to nearly half of the average 45 to 50 children housed three years ago. Prior to 2007, juvenile officials struggled with overcrowding and young offenders making repeat visits. But a reform aimed to cure the problem has proved successful. The average occupancy at the facility is 23 to 25 youths a day. "Then we were running 45 kids in a 29-bed facility," said Edwin Scott, director Caddo's juvenile services department. "Detention should never be used for a scare tactic. It's to keep kids who are a threat to the community off the streets. "We had to rethink what we do with juvenile justice and how we do business. And from that we've done several things that made some big differences." In 2006, Caddo partnered with the McArthur Foundation and its Models for Change, tools to assist officials in making processing and placement decisions for young offenders. Ideally, the tools help with decision-making in a manner that fosters rehabilitation through interventions and decreases risk for delinquency in the future. At the same time, Models for Change's focus is to reduce the number of youths in secure care facilities. In doing so, Caddo implemented SAVRY, Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youths, to determine the level of risks for each child booked into the detention center. Youths are assessed for the needs and risk, then serviced based on the individual levels. "That helped Caddo form a plan," said Dr. Tom Grisso, with the MacArthur Foundation. "They were doing that prior, but not with a lot of focus. We did a study on how Caddo was operating and found that more kids were being locked up than really needed to be. The ones who get intensive service, go to detention, should be high-risk kids, and not all children who were being brought into the facility had such levels." Grisso, who also is a clinical psychologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, stresses that keeping low-risk kids in detention causes their behavior to worsen, causing more harm than good. Instead of using detention as a discipline option for nonviolent youth, Scott and parish administrators created community-based programs to better serve them and their parents. The Misdemeanor Referral Center was developed for youths who have committed minor offenses. It's maintained by the Rutherford House through a state Offices of Youth Development Grant. Before the referral center opened, law enforcement officers would take misdemeanor offenders to the detention center until a guardian could pick them up. Now the juvenile is taken to the referral center, avoiding detention time and saving time and resources. "We're not turning kids loose who commit armed robberies, sex offenses and homicides or felonies against another person," Scott said. "Those are the kids who need to be here. We do have some who are released with conditions, but when we put all of them here, we are creating risks and it backfires on us." Another program, The Facts of Life, involves parents. The court orders the juveniles to attend eight sessions that focus on different areas of life. "The bottom line, it's helping the kids," Scott said. "It's not just reducing the numbers, but giving the children the help they need. We've moved a certain population out of here without causing a safety issue to the community." It costs Caddo roughly $200 a day to house a juvenile. The amount covers food, schooling, mental health and medical services. Youths entering Caddo Juvenile Detention Center are ages 10 to 16 and stay on average seven days, Scott said. On Thursday, there were 27 juveniles in the facility. Scott say's he'll consider reassigning detention personnel to work with juveniles in the community if occupancy numbers continue to decline. Caddo is the first parish in the state to adopt Models for Change. Debra K. DePrato, associate professor of Clinical Public Health and Preventive Medicine with LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, is working with other parishes to the implement needs and risk method. "We've been working with state judges, district attorneys, probation officers and detention personnel," DePrato said. "It's really cutting edge, but it's also a cost benefit." As part of the reform, Caddo also partnered with the Annie E. Casey Foundation and its Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative. The foundation implemented a risk assessment form that help determines whether a juvenile should go home or to detention and decides what steps to take next. Published: Tue, Jul 20, 2010

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