KGWN –Cheyenne, WY– Scottsbluff, NE News,Weather, SportsAn Alternative to Locking Up Juvenile Offenders

An Alternative to Locking Up Juvenile Offenders

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  The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, or JDAI, met with Laramie County judges Monday to talk about services and initiatives to help juvenile criminals develop into healthy, productive adults.


    The 15-year-old organization has never been present in Wyoming, but is heavily involved in the juvenile justice systems of many other states.   


Newschannel 5's Kelly Keiter sat down with local and national experts from JDAI who are working with the Wyoming juvenile justice system to promote greater awareness of programs that offer alternatives to incarceration for young criminals.
An American Civil Liberties report says Wyoming has one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation for children under the age of 18.


But Former District Judge and current Justice Policy Adviser to Gov. Matt Mead, Gary Hartman, said this could largely be due to the fact that many young offenders are repeat offenders or do not need to be incarcerated because they are low risk.

"I think, many times, judges get frustrated, as I did, with these juveniles coming back through and back through the system. And finally the judge throws up their hands, in many cases, and says 'I don't know what to do with you...' I'm going to put you in detention for 10, 15, 30 days," Hartman explained.

Hartman and other judges in Laramie County met with officials from the JDAI to discuss ways to promote greater awareness of alternative programs for young criminals.

"We think there's a place for detention and that's for high risk youth, but many low risk youth end up in detention, often because there are not alternative programs," said Rand Young, a JDAI national coordinator.

Right now, many juvenile criminals are tried in all the different levels of court, including municipal, circuit and district, but many feel this is an unproductive and oftentimes, unjust way of dealing with young offenders.

"I personally think that we need a change in the state of Wyoming," Hartman said.
Young added, "And we think the initiative is really going to do a couple of things. One, it's going to help juvenile justice professionals and service providers learn to coordinate more effectively, and, through different courts, work together in a more coordinated manner."

JDAI allows judges opportunities to use other resources or services to help juvenile offenders become healthy, productive adults.

"JDAI helps find alternatives and gives resources to communities like Laramie County and other counties in Wyoming to create or develop those services so the low risk kids that shouldn't be in detention aren't put in detention, there's alternatives to be served," said Rachel Campbell, a JDAI Wyoming coordinator.

They advocate that there are many different, and healthier alternatives to locking kids up.

"The previous thinking was that the best tool to turn kids around was to put them in detention, and that's true for a certain population.," Young said. "But what we're learning is that low risk youth actually do better when they remain in the community, when they stay in school, when they're home with their parents. "

While this is the first time JDAI will be putting its influence to work in Wyoming, Hartman and officials from the group say they're eager to get to work in the state.

"We think with the advent of [JDAI] coming to Wyoming, it's going to be very helpful to communities to help build some resources that might make those resources available as an alternative to detention," Hartman said.

They hope it will vastly improve the current juvenile justice system in Wyoming, as many feel a new system is overdue.

"Laramie County is in the process of building a new detention center which will also have a shelter care proponent to it, and part of the design is also to have space for alternative programs," Young said.