State agencies are reviewing grant applications for programs designed to reach up to 75 percent of the teenagers 16 and under who have been identified as at risk of falling into criminal lives. Though there is not enough money to fund all the requests, the grant proposals have been submitted by 57 counties for local programs that could divert the teens from the juvenile justice system and possibly prison in their adult years.
As part of efforts to reform Georgia’s juvenile justice system, $5 million in state dollars and another $1 million in federal money is being offered to juvenile courts for programs that will address the circumstances that may have pushed some youth to break the law: anger issues, drug or alcohol use or dysfunctional home lives.
The total amount requested by the time the application process closed last week is more than $10.2 million.
Joe Vignati, with the justice division of the Governor’s Office for Children and Families, said all the grant applications combined proposed programs that could address the needs of more than 1.7 million of 2.3 million 16-year-olds and younger who are in danger of falling into lives of crime without some kind of intervention.
Vignati said some courts will not get all that they requested but each one would get something.
“You may not get 50 slots for kids for functional family therapy but maybe you’ll get 25,” Vignati said. “(For) some of the things that were requested we may be able to use some existing state resources that will just be redirected.”
The deadline for submitting applications was June 21. State officials are sorting them now, and the awards are to be announced next month.
Some juvenile court judges have worried that the grants would only go to the more populous counties and rural areas would be ignored. When the application process began, some judges said they were told only courts in 12 to 18 of Georgia’s 159 counties would get a piece of the $6 million.
But according to records provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, several small counties have joined in applying for the money. For example, one Middle Georgia court applied for money for programs for more than 33,000 at-risk youth in Baldwin and seven neighboring counties. An application from Clay County said the grant money would also serve juveniles in Randolph, Quitman, Terrell and Early Counties in South Georgia.
And a third application sought money for programs for more than 38,300 at-risk youths 16 and younger in Walker, Catoosa, Chattooga and Dade Counties in northwest Georgia.
There also were applications from courts in metro Atlanta and busy courts in Bibb, Hall and Chatham Counties.
The goal of the changes adopted by the 2013 Legislature was to address home lives or addictions that are at the root of a juvenile’s problems with the law, and to lock up only the most dangerous teenagers.
Juvenile offenders for whom there is little hope would be sent to state custody. Those who are not dangerous and are salvageable would be diverted to community-based programs with proven successes.
As things are now, 65 percent of teenage offenders return to the juvenile or adult criminal justice system within three years of being released. Advocates for the changes that go into effect Jan. 1 say taxpayers could save as much as $85 million over five years if fewer youth offenders are locked up.
Vignati said most of the proposed programs are counseling, substance-abuse treatment programs or classes on life skills and anger management. Some involve family members
“It’s across the board based on what the counties’ needs are,” Vignati said.
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