This 5th annual report provides an update on juvenile justice reform policies that were passed in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 and subsequent years. Policy changes focused on preventing deeper involvement in the juvenile justice system for lower level youths, 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. The updated performance metrics for FY 2021 take into account the growth in Utah’s youths population and is situated in the context of a continued pandemic. Similar to the previous year, Utah continues to see a consistent decline in court referrals, locked detention, community placement and secure care while seeing an increase in diversion and probation opportunities.
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Referrals to Utah’s juvenile court system continued to decrease in FY 2021. Overall, there were 11,660 referrals to the Juvenile Court in FY 2021. This represents a decline of 26% from FY 2020 and a continuation in the general trend of decreasing referrals.
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Youths continue to be diverted from the system through the use of Nonjudicial Adjustments. The share of youths entering into an Nonjudicial Adjustment increased to 59% in FY 2021. These findings are consistent among nonminority and minority youths.
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The use of Locked Detention continued to decrease in FY 2021. Youths admitted to Locked Detention continued its downward trend, with a 75% decrease when compared to FY 2015. The share of Locked Detention placements slightly increased for youths who identified as minority.
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Court supervision through Intake or Formal Probation are guided by a youth’s level of risk and needs. For FY 2021, the rate for Intake and Formal Probation were fairly similar, with both Intake and Formal Probation orders increasing from FY 2020. The share of Formal Probation orders increased for youths identified as minority while the opposite can be seen for Intake Probation orders.
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Community Placements have reduced the share of youths being ordered to out of home placements. Youths admitted to Community Placement continued its declining trend in FY 2021, with a 69% decrease when compared to FY 2015. This decline was similar for youths who identified as nonminority and minority.
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The rate of admissions to Secure Care have declined in FY 2021. Secure Care admissions declined to .4 per 1000 youths in FY 2021, with minority youths continuing to make up a disproportionate large share of these most restrictive admissions.
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Continued reinvestment into the front-end of the system has produced success. One of many reinvestment decisions included the Youth Services Model, a “no wrong door” approach to early intervention. Preliminary data shows that 98% of youth completing intervention services avoided new JJS and probation supervision at 180 days follow up.
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.