JDAI Site Updates

Commitments plummet as detention reform gets underway

Sue Bell Cobb, Alabama Chief Justice

Significant reductions in youth commitments in Alabama are being driven by decreases in four counties employing JDAI reforms, according to an analysis by the Casey Strategic Consulting Group, at the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The gains demonstrate a move toward more deliberate decision-making about the use of detention, and sensitivity to the negative effects of over-reliance on detention and the impact that individual detention decisions have on outcomes for the whole juvenile justice system.

That new outlook is buoyed by a bipartisan and spirited collaboration by policymakers and juvenile justice officials, from Gov. Bob Riley and Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, to family court judges and probation officers.

“I think these numbers, especially the JDAI counties' numbers, highlight the dramatic things that can be done in a very short time and with little or no money,” said Judge Brian Huff, presiding family court judge for Jefferson County. “All you need is a shift in thinking.”

Between June and December 2007, the number of youth in Alabama Department of Youth Services-operated facilities and contract residential programs dropped by 10 percent compared to the last six months of 2006.

In DYS-operated facilities, the number of youth fell from 560 to 502, and in contract facilities from 526 to 476. The overall total represents 161 fewer commitments.

There were also decreases in population for Alabama’s regular commitment programs (942 to 885) and for the state’s High Intensive Treatment (HIT) program (143 to 93).

Those shrinking numbers reflect decreases in Jefferson, Mobile, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa counties, all participants in JDAI.

“The mindset here is changing to be more aware of the children … and why we have detention, what our purpose is and the purpose of secure detention,” said Vanessa Jones, JDAI site coordinator for Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham, the state’s largest city. “We’re just redefining ourselves.”

Over the last six months of 2007, commitments in Tuscaloosa dropped by 42 percent, and by 35 percent, 25 percent and 15 percent in Mobile, Jefferson and Montgomery counties, respectively. In non-JDAI counties, according to the analysis, commitments actually increased by 2 percent.

In Jefferson County, the drop in commitments mirrors the trend in the county’s detention population, which is now in the 30s after consistently being above 100.

Judge Brian Huff, presiding judge for Jefferson County’s family court, agrees that there has been a change in philosophy. He said that the key players in the juvenile justice system – from probation officers to defense attorneys to judges – are “coming to the realization that we have been locking up the wrong kids.”

“The kids who make up the largest group of this decrease in commitments are low-risk kids. They are kids who violate probation, violate curfews, commit nonviolent offenses and generally have frustrated or angered the judge,” Huff said. “We are realizing that locking these kids up may make the judge feel better for that moment, but it usually makes matters worse, and it makes it more likely that the child will recidivate.”

But while the state’s early achievements have occurred without program changes or new dollars invested in community services, only a continued commitment to reform will bring about the structural changes that produce true and lasting change, said Bart Lubow, the Casey Foundation’s director of programs for high-risk youth.

"The danger for jurisdictions like Alabama is that they see enormous progress in a short time after having experienced no progress for decades, and they are so excited that they think they're done,” Lubow said.

“In fact, they have only started and run a serious risk of losing the advances absent attention to building the necessary infrastructure to sustain and deepen the reforms. This is where JDAI's core strategies come in."

Alabama’s overall decline in commitments is being driven by a decrease in youth from JDAI sites where commitments have fallen by 30%, totaling 180 youth.


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