A new program will give juveniles arrested in Cass County a chance at an alternative to secure detention starting next year.
Cass County has been receiving funds from Indiana's implementation of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, or JDAI, which the Annie E. Casey Foundation started in 1992 to avoid over-reliance on detaining juvenile offenders.
Cass Circuit Court Judge Leo Burns, who's part of the initiative's implementation locally, has been updating local elected officials on the program. He reminded the Cass County Commissioners and Logansport City Council earlier this week that JDAI aims to find alternatives to secure detention for low-level juvenile offenders if they're not a risk to public safety or likely to try to avoid their upcoming court appearance.
Data indicates secure detention for such offenders makes them more likely to offend again in the future, Burns said.
"The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative is a public safety program," Burns said at Monday night's city council meeting. "It's not designed to go light on juvenile offenders. In fact, the opposite is true."
Cass County was awarded $60,000 in JDAI funding last year and is one of 19 Indiana counties to have the program. Burns said Cass County's JDAI steering committee meets monthly and is made up of representatives from the fields of law, mental health, child services, education, corrections and others.
The county received more JDAI funds this year and intends to apply for more during which Burns anticipates will be the final year funds are offered.
Burns said the local JDAI team has developed a screening tool that local law enforcement and probation officers will use to decide whether an arrested juvenile should be detained based on what kind of offense they're accused of and what their level of family involvement is. That screening tool will go into effect in 2018, he added.
The alternative to secure detention ahead of a juvenile offender's first court appearance that will be used in Cass County is GPS monitoring, Burns said.
After grant funds are no longer available, JDAI is intended to continue in Cass County at no additional expense to taxpayers, Burns said in an interview on Wednesday, Dec. 6.
He explained that the JDAI coordination responsibilities, which are currently being taken on by Cass County Family Opportunity Center staff, will become part of that agency's workload. The same goes for work required by field officers in the program, which Burns said Cass/Pulaski Community Corrections will take on.