For more than 20 years nationally in both urban and rural jurisdictions, the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) has demonstrated that moving low-risk youth from secure detention into community-based alternative programs is excellent public policy. JDAI is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, focused on juvenile justice system improvement. In Indiana, JDAI is overseen by Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, Indiana Department of Correction, Indiana Supreme Court, Indiana Department of Child Services, Indiana FSSA: Division of Mental Health & Addiction and Indiana Department of Education.
JDAI aims to improve public safety, reduces over-reliance on secure detention and out-of-home placements, enhances racial, ethnic and gender equality, and saves taxpayer dollars.
Wabash County began the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative in January of 2016following the leadership of Circuit Judge Robert R. McCallen III. Judge McCallen convened a group of justice and community stakeholders including Court Services, the prosecutor’s office, a juvenile public defender, local law enforcement, local school corporations, the YMCA, Bowen Center, Youth Service Bureau of Huntington County, Education for Conflict Resolution, White’s Family and Residential Services, and Manchester University. In the process of implementing the eight core strategies of JDAI, Wabash County has determined for what purposes secure detention will be used, has developed a Detention Screening Tool, has worked with local law enforcement and the schools on engaging youth and understanding adolescent behavior, and has implemented local alternatives to detention. Additionally, JDAI has shifted system focusto one in which data is utilized to inform the decisions made for justice involved youth.
Wabash County Purpose of Detention:
“Wabash County will use secure detention when the benefits to public safety outweigh the dangers of detention posed to the juvenile. Wabash County will only use secure detention for the length of time necessary to ensure public safety and that the youth will appear for future Court proceedings. Wabash County will utilize an objective risk assessment instrument to make detention determinations in a fair, consistent, and timely manner for all youth referred to the juvenile justice system.”
Since 2015 Court Services has reduced our use of secure detention by 62% all while maintaining or reducing the number of felony petitions filed in juvenile court. Additionally, we have been able to reduce county costs of out of home placement by 86%.
“Along with the reduction in the number youth being placed in harmful detention centersand cost savings to the county, JDAI has been a huge culture shift for our department that extends into to our adult system. Ultimately, we want to promote a culture of learning and growth; JDAI was a starting point for us. We obviously knew that things were not perfect within the juvenile justice system, and JDAI has taught us that through strong leadership, collaboration, and looking at the data- we can start to rewrite the story for Wabash County youth.
We have come to recognize that missing in our efforts, is the voice of the youth and families that we have served. We hope to connect with those youth and their families that we have served over the last several years in the coming weeks. We will have opportunities to be involved in several different ways. We will have surveys, focus groups, and even opportunities for those who wish, to serve on a Youth and Family Advisory Council.
We contracted with Transform Consulting Group to conduct the surveys and focus groups, and convene the advisory council. We hope that those who wish to remain completely anonymous will be able to do so through this third party and will feel comfortable providing valuable feedback that can be complied and put to good use in making impactful reform to local juvenile justice.
We encourage anyone who wishes to participate in any capacity to reach out to us with contact information. You can call 260.563.8466 to reach Court Services Monday through Friday 8am to 4pm and provide your current phone number and email address.
Feel free to reach out to us and/or look for additional information on our Facebook Page which can be found at:
Or by email to Trisha Hanes at thanes@wabashcounty.in.gov