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“A lot of what we try to do in juvenile justice is at the front end,” said Lassiter. “We try to make sure a kid doesn’t go very deep into the criminal justice system because the deeper they get the more likely they are to recidivate because you are mixing them with populations that have bad habits themselves.”
e state also funds youth development centers (YDCs) that house the juveniles charged with violent or serious crimes or have a lengthy delinquency history. ese centers currently have 190 beds. Forecasts are that between 20 and almost 100 new beds will be needed.
HELP AT THE FRONT END
“A lot of what we try to do in juvenile jus- tice is at the front end,” said Lassiter. “We try to make sure a kid doesn’t go very deep into the criminal justice system because the deeper they get the more likely they are to recidivate because you are mixing them with popula- tions that have bad habits themselves.”
“We work with the whole family. We spend a lot of time with the child at school, in the community, and at their home to have an im- pact. We now tailor the programming around the needs of each child to target the behaviors that drove that child into the system to start with.”
It’s estimated that these programs will re- duce the rate of recidivism among juveniles by 12.5%. at will eventually reduce the num- ber of adults under supervision and adults in prison.
“Down the road, it will reduce the num- ber of victimizations that occur in society. So there are long term cost savings from Raise the Age, but you gotta pay up front. We’ve told legislators, if you put this investment in now, it will save you down the road,” said Lassiter.
“In four to ve years, you will see major cost savings because of the reduction in recidivism of this population.”
GIVE THE KIDS HOPE
e ultimate goal is to reduce the number of juveniles who get into trouble and get ar- rested and reduce the rate of recidivism. e rst step is programs for the kids.”
“ e alternatives that a judge has that they can order for a juvenile in a local community are funded through those community-based
BILLY LASSITER
dollars. If we don’t have that money in the lo- cal community, judges are not going to have programs to send those kids to,” said Lassiter
“It’s really important to keep kids from getting deeper into the system, which is much more expensive. Put(ting) a kid in a Youth Development Center costs $ 125,000 a year. To serve a kid in a JCPC program costs $ 1,000 a year.”
“We are going to hold them accountable for their mistake, but we are not going to make it a life-long mark on their potential earnings in the future.
When you take a 16 or 17-year-old and throw them into the adult system, you destroy a lot of their hope for a potential job, a poten- tial chance to go to college, potential earnings in the future in general. I think our number one goal for Raise the Age is to give the kids hope.”
“We work with the whole family. We spend a lot of time with the child at school, in the community, and at their home to have
an impact. We now tailor the programming around the needs of each child
to target the behaviors that drove that child into the system to start with.”
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