PRESS RELEASE
Not for Publication Before 2 pm. Eastern Time June 6, 2001

CONTACT:
Richard Mendel - 410-547-1663
or
Samuel Halperin - 202-775-9731

NEW STUDY HIGHLIGHTS JUVENILE JUSTICE
INITIATIVES THAT REDUCE CRIME AND SAVE MONEY

Eight Profiled Programs Demonstrate Need and Potential for Sweeping Reforms in Juvenile Justice

WASHINGTON, DC -- Documenting the impressive records of eight break-the-mold juvenile justice initiatives, LESS COST, MORE SAFETY: Guiding Lights for Reform in Juvenile Justice, a new report by the American Youth Policy Forum, provides compelling evidence that greater success against adolescent crime is within reach and available for less money than we spend currently.

Serving youth in California, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin, the initiatives profiled in LESS COST, MORE SAFETY show that quality intervention programs – not transfer to adult courts and correctional systems, or misdirected juvenile programs – reduce delinquency, ease overcrowding in juvenile detention and corrections facilities, divert delinquent youth from criminal careers, and reduce reliance on expensive "residential treatment" programs for disturbed and delinquent teens. Most importantly, these programs are making communities safer and saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

• In Wisconsin's Milwaukee County, an innovative home-based counseling program has lowered the arrest rates of delinquent teen participants by 70 percent. The program has also reduced the number of youth in residential treatment from 360 to 135 per day, slashing more than $11 million per year in treatment costs.
• In Florida, a small correctional ranch based in the Everglades uses intensive behavior management and ongoing follow-up -- rather than locked cells or transfers to adult court -- to quell the criminal careers of violent and chronic juvenile offenders. Over the past four years this program has enabled 85 percent of participants to avoid re-arrest, compared to a 58 percent success rate in Florida's more conventional juvenile prisons.
• In Orange County, CA, juvenile probation workers have developed methods to identify at first arrest youth who are most likely to become chronic offenders. By enrolling extreme-risk youth in intensive treatment and family counseling, the County has lowered future incarceration rates among these youth and reduced the number with two or more subsequent arrests by 29 percent.

"Contrary to popular perceptions, we really do know how to reduce the criminality of troubled adolescents," said Richard A. Mendel, author of the report. "In fact, we're already doing it in these eight sites plus many others. Best of all, the successful methods are far more cost-effective than today's common practices. The lesson from these programs is that we must overcome public skepticism that anything can be done with troubled kids, and then start putting our knowledge of what works into widespread practice."

"Together, these lighthouse programs point the way toward a new model for juvenile justice that protects the public and spares taxpayer dollars by reaching out to teens in trouble and using hard-headed tactics to re-engage them in productive and law-abiding lifestyles," commented American Youth Policy Forum founder and Senior Fellow Samuel Halperin. "These programs show that especially when it comes to youth, the ‘lock 'em up and throw away the key' approach is both dangerous and wasteful."

For more information on juvenile crime issues, go online to www.aypf.org/mendel and view Less Hype, More Help: Reducing Juvenile Crime, What Works – and What Doesn't, a comprehensive assessment of America's efforts to combat adolescent crime released last June. This earlier report, which was covered by National Public Radio, ABC television, CNN, Fox News Network, MSNBC, the CBS national radio network, and dozens of local media outlets nationwide, contains a wealth of background data.

The American Youth Policy Forum is a non-partisan, Washington-based agency dedicated to fostering better public policies toward America's teens and young adults. AYPF's 66-page LESS COST, MORE SAFETY report will be available online to the public starting June 6 at www.aypf.org. Hard copies of the report will be available after June 6 from the American Youth Policy Forum, 1836 Jefferson Place NW, Washington, DC 20036, 202-775-9731, for $5.00 to cover the cost of postage and handling in the contiguous United States. Prepaid orders only, please.

LESS COST, MORE SAFETY was funded by the Walter S. Johnson Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation. Additional support for dissemination was provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.