Wyoming is Completing its First Year as a JDAI Site

The state of Wyoming has iden­ti­fied five counties—Campbell, Fre­mont, Laramie, Natrona, and Sweet­wa­ter— to repli­cate JDAI at the local level.

The state’s first-year activ­i­ties have includ­ed hir­ing a JDAI state coor­di­na­tor, estab­lish­ing a state JDAI bud­get, devel­op­ing the capac­i­ty to col­lect deten­tion data, and estab­lish­ing a state JDAI Steer­ing Committee.

Local JDAI col­lab­o­ra­tive com­mit­tees were formed using pre­vi­ous­ly exist­ing com­mu­ni­ty juve­nile ser­vice boards, and state and local stake­hold­ers par­tic­i­pat­ed in train­ing. A state-man­dat­ed deten­tion risk assess­ment and deten­tion stan­dards are in the ear­ly stages of devel­op­ment and implementation.

Local lead­ers are explor­ing how to expand com­mu­ni­ty-based alter­na­tives and bet­ter use exist­ing ser­vices to reduce their reliance on secure deten­tion. The state coor­di­na­tor, Rachel Camp­bell, worked close­ly with the Casey Foun­da­tion to con­vert local­ly entered deten­tion data into JDAI’s new QRS Deten­tion Uti­liza­tion Reports.

Although Wyoming has a statewide juve­nile court, juve­nile cas­es may be han­dled in dis­trict, cir­cuit, munic­i­pal, and trib­al courts. Addi­tion­al­ly Wyoming is the sole U.S. state not par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Juve­nile Jus­tice and Delin­quen­cy Pre­ven­tion Act.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Rachel Camp­bell.