Juvenile justice services take a hitTennessee and other cash-strapped states cut rehab programs, lock kids upBy Jim Davenport • ASSOCIATED PRESS • December 27, 2008State budget cuts are forcing some of the nation's youngest criminals out of counseling programs and group homes and into juvenile prisons in what critics contend is a shortsighted move that will eventually lead to more crime and higher costs.
Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia are among the states that have slashed juvenile justice spending — in some cases more than 20 percent — because of slumping tax collections. Youth advocates say they expect the recession will bring more cuts next year in other states, hitting programs that try to rehabilitate children rather than simply locking them up.
"If you raise a child in prison, you're going to raise a convict," said South Carolina Juvenile Justice Director Bill Byars, credited with turning around a system once better known for warehousing children than counseling them and teaching them life skills.
Now, he's been asked to draw up plans to trim an additional 15 percent from a juvenile justice budget already cut $23 million, or 20 percent, since June as part of the state's effort to pare $1 billion from its $7 billion budget.
Dawn Deaner, a Metro Nashville public defender, expressed concerns similar to Byars' recently, when
The Tennessean reported that the number of juveniles transferred to adult court in Davidson County this year — an expected 60 — is poised to top 2007 levels by about 50 percent.
"What good does it do to send a 16-year-old to the penitentiary on a robbery charge?" Deaner said. "To me, it doesn't do any good. He'll come back worse off than he went in."
Juvenile crime is up in Nashville, where prosecutors plan to consider moving more juveniles into the adult system for serious or nonviolent felonies such as home invasions or selling drugs on school property.
Prosecutor Kathy Morante said she is tired of seeing the same offenders return to Juvenile Court just months after being locked up by the Department of Children's Services and then quickly released.
Tennessee has cut grants for juvenile programs by $1.7 million, or 26 percent, which affects after-school programs, truancy prevention and child and family interventions. More cuts are expected.
Reform efforts sufferIn South Carolina, all five of the system's group homes — which generally house less-violent offenders and offer more individual attention — have been shuttered. Also gone are some intensive youth reform and after-school programs in detention facilities.
The story is similar in other states. Kentucky is cutting a boot camp-style program developed by the National Guard. Virginia is losing behavioral services staff and a facility that prepares children to go home after serving time, along with smaller camps and community programs. Juveniles in those programs will return to traditional correctional facilities.
"It's not like we're going to say, 'OK, let's close a juvenile detention center,' or something like that," said Gordon Hickey, spokesman for Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. "We have to reduce spending across the state, and the governor looked at suggestions and recommendations from all departments. He certainly realizes that all of these reductions have consequences. The idea is to limit the damage as much as possible."
Among the programs being cut in South Carolina is one that Lex Wilbanks, an 18-year-old arrested four years ago on drug and gun charges, credits with giving him back his future.
Before moving to a program run by Florida nonprofit Associated Marine Institute, which provides intensive counseling and wilderness camps in several states, Wilbanks spent four months in a regular juvenile detention center.
"When you did something wrong or you fight or you disrespect staff, they just throw you into lockdown," Wilbanks said. "They just throw you in and make them fight to survive. You're just making them a hardened criminal."
In South Carolina, only 22 percent of offenders who go through the institute's program later break the law, less than half the recidivism rate for juveniles in large state facilities, Byars said.
Through the program, Wilbanks worked his way to the top rank in Army Junior ROTC and earned a GED and college credits. Counselors "talk you through problems and how you can actually change," he said. "It gives you hope."
Individual focus helpsFlorida also is axing three Associated Marine Institute programs to save $1.7 million, part of an effort to cut 4 percent, or $18 million, from the juvenile justice budget. Advocates are bracing for more cuts as legislators prepare to deal with a $2 billion state budget hole.
The picture isn't as bleak everywhere. In New York, where the jailed juvenile population has fallen as the state adopts a more community-based approach, Gov. David Paterson has proposed closing six youth facilities and consolidating and downsizing others that aren't being fully used to save $12 million in 2009-10 and $14 million in 2010-11.
A court order limits the cuts California can make, and Minnesota, Massachusetts and Nebraska haven't made serious cuts. Other states, including Connecticut, Oregon, New Hampshire and Utah, are making more modest cuts or delaying planned spending.
Advocates say they worry most about losing programs, such as group homes, that take children out of large facilities to give them individual attention.
Juvenile facilities see an array of criminals. Gun, drug, sex and assault offenders may share sleeping quarters and classes with teen pranksters.
Generally, less-violent offenders make it to smaller group homes where, experts say, pecking orders are easier to defuse than in prisons, where gangs form and fight for control.
Sheila Bedi, executive director of the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute, said housing a child can cost $600 a day. But the costs can soar when children emerge hardened from big youth prisons, commit more crimes and end up in adult facilities.
"The truant comes out learning how to steal a car," Bedi said. "You cannot expect a child to come out of that situation with the ability to make better life decisions."
Kate Howard of The Tennessean and Dena Potter of The Associated Press contributed to this report.
