Juvenile Justice System and Risk Factor Data - Illinois Criminal ...

The Second Judicial Circuit Redeploy Program served 20 youth in 2007 and the average length
of program participation was nine to 12 months. The probation department assumed the
administrative function and day-to-day oversight of the program. According to the November
2008 Redeploy Illinois annual report, the Second Judicial Circuit Redeploy program reduced
youth commitments to IDJJ 41 percent (20 fewer youth) in 2007.
In 2005, Redeploy Illinois pilot sites in Peoria and St. Clair counties were implemented. In
Peoria County, the focus is on high-risk youth probationers and youth who would otherwise have
been sent to IDOC for a court evaluation. Among other services, participants receive mentoring,
individual and family counseling, aggression replacement therapy, and increased community
supervision. In FY07, Peoria County reduced youth commitments from 78 to 49, a 38 percent
reduction.
In St. Clair County, the goals of Redeploy Illinois are to provide evaluations locally rather than
committing youth to IDOC for a court evaluation, and increasing the capacity of the county to
provide evidence-based treatment in the least restrictive setting. Treatment services supported
with Redeploy funds include functional family therapy, multi-systemic therapy, aggression
replacement therapy, family group conferencing, and intensive community supervision. In FY07,
St. Clair County reduced youth commitments to IDJJ 37 percent (29 fewer youth).
In 2007, Redeploy Illinois received an increase of $750,000 to expand the initiative to include
other counties. The Authority created profiles for each existing and potential Redeploy Illinois
county. The profiles examined county-specific economic and social indicator data, and detention
and corrections data to provide a statistical portrait of each county. The profiles were distributed
to each county and will be available on the Authority’s website in fall 2009.
Illinois Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative
The Annie E. Casey Foundation established the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI)
in 1992 to demonstrate that jurisdictions can develop more effective and efficient alternatives to
placing youth in detention centers. The national foundation is a private charitable organization
dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children. JDAI focuses on the juvenile
detention component of the juvenile justice system with an underlying belief that youth are often
unnecessarily or inappropriately detained at great expense, with long-lasting negative
consequences for both public safety and youth development.
JDAI promotes changes to policies, practices, and programs in efforts to: (1) reduce reliance on
secure confinement, (2) improve public safety, (3) reduce racial disparities and bias, (4) save tax
dollars, (5) stimulate overall juvenile justice reforms, and (6) implement new or enhanced nonsecure
alternatives to detention, such as innovative probation- based services.
The foundation tested the initiative in five pilot sites nationwide, including Cook County. 43 Cook
County made substantial improvements on all four objectives, a trend that was substantiated by
more recent evaluations by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in 2005. The county was able to
decrease the number of youth unnecessarily detained by implementing an objective detentionscreening
instrument. Cook County also reduced the number of failures to appear in court by
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