Policies in HB 239 elevated the use of evidence-based programs and practices in Utah’s juvenile justice system. Several broad policy objectives include: increasing public safety, holding juveniles accountable for their delinquent behavior, and controlling costs. These objectives are meant to ensure that youths are being given the best opportunity to succeed while being held accountable for their actions. This 3rd annual report provides an update on how well the juvenile justice system is adjusting to policies that went into effect in Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 and 2019. Findings take into account the growth in Utah’s youths population.
Overall, referral of youths to Juvenile Court are down in all judicial districts and there has been an additional $4.9 million in savings in FY 2019 that will be reinvested in front end services. Utah continued to rely more heavily on community resources, progressed in standardizing decision-making, and advanced measurement of how well juvenile justice approaches meet evidence-based standards.
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Referrals to Utah’s juvenile court system continued to decrease in FY 2019. Overall, there were 17,354 referrals to the Juvenile Court in FY 2019. This represents a decline of 5% from FY 2018 and a continuation in the general trend of decreasing referrals.
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More youths are being diverted from the system through the use of Nonjudicial Adjustments. Policies that emphasized diversion from formal juvenile court processes increased the share of youths entering an Nonjudicial Adjustment agreement from 30 to 56%. These findings are consistent among judicial districts and nonminority and minority youths.
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Standards of court supervision through Intake or Formal Probation are guided by a youth’s level of risk and needs. For FY 2019, the rate for Intake and Formal Probation differed, with Intake Probation orders increasing and the latter decreasing. The trend in Formal Probation was experienced differently among youths who identified as minority and nonminority.
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The use of Locked Detention continued to decline in FY 2019. While showing a downward trend before the implementation of HB 239, youths admitted to Locked Detention continued its downward trend in FY 2019. This trend was consistent among youths who identified as nonminority and minority.
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Amendments to Community Placement have reduced the share of youths being ordered to out of home placements. HB 239 limited the use of Community Placement to youths who are in need for residential treatment and when non-residential options have been exhausted. These orders decreased from a rate of 2.6 to 1.2 per 1000 youths. This decline was similar for youths who identified as nonminority and minority.
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The rate of admissions to Secure Care remained similar between FY 2015 and 2019. Though HB 239 restricted the use of Secure Care unless certain criteria were met, the rate of admissions remained similar between the selected time period, hovering between .5 and .6 per 1000 youths.
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Removing youths from their homes in delinquency cases with no involvement of abuse, neglect, or dependency has zeroed out in FY 2019. Policies that restricted direct removal of youths in the Division of Child and Family Services’ custody, from their home allowed more opportunities for assessments to determine whether in‐home family preservation services were appropriate.
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Savings from closing down facilities are being reinvested into the front-end of the system. The Division of Juvenile Justice Services closed a number of facilities in FY 2019. Savings realized from these closures are being held in a restrictive account for use in re-investing in important front-end services.
Policy changes focused on preventing deeper involvement in the juvenile justice system for youths who are referred for lower-level offenses, protecting the community by focusing system resources on youths who pose the highest risk to public safety, and improving outcomes through reinvestment and increased system accountability.