http://www.walb.com/story/24340716/2014-brings-change-to-the-georgia-juvenile-justice-system
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
New Juvenile Law in Georgia
The state of Georgia is implementing a new law to reduce the number of minors incarcerated in effort to effectively treat delinquent youth who commit lesser crimes and to save the state money.
Juveniles who commit minor crimes will be placed in a community-based program. Those juveniles who create a more serious crime will be detained. The state of Georgia provides citizens with protection of youth who commits serious crime which is the reason while they will remain detained.
The new law will save the state approximately $87,000 per year. It cost $90,000 to detain youth in the dentition as opposed to $3,000 for community based-programs.
The Georgia Commissioner believes that those juveniles who commit lesser crime will obtain the services and treatment that they need through the community based program stating “its a win for troubled teens who need community outreach, not detention.”
The new law requires three assessments. First, decide if the minor should be detained based on court procedures. Second, determine the risk level in sentencing. Finally, create an individual plan to reduce the rate of recidivism for the youth.
http://www.walb.com/story/24340716/2014-brings-change-to-the-georgia-juvenile-justice-system
http://www.walb.com/story/24340716/2014-brings-change-to-the-georgia-juvenile-justice-system
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I believe this is the first step into heading in the right direction for an overhaul to juvenile justice. I like that this law is focusing more on rehabilitation instead of incarceration, especially for status or nonviolent offenses. I think this law has more of a person in environment focus, which will help w/ treatment plans. However, I think that there should be some modifications of services/therapy available to those incarcerated as well. For example, what if a youth has had behavioral issues growing up but the parent/guardian does not report these and the youth commits a violent offense and gets incarcerated. In this case the youth did not have the opportunity to go through therapeutic services to reduce recidivism or curb the chances of graduating to committing a violent offense. If the youth is in juvenile detention they should still get counseling and help w/ life skills because they will eventually be released into society. If they get the therapy while incarcerated it satisfies the law to keep the rest of society safe but also keep the future society they will be released to safe.
ReplyDeleteI like this! I feel like it is a win-win for everyone involved. It saves the state money and it gives youth, who may have made a mistake because they do not have the education or impulse control, the chance to get the help they need and change the trajectory of their lives.
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a good thing to me. I appreciate the fact that there will be multiple assessment to get an overall accurate picture of the juvenile.
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