Effective diversion programs are partially responsible for Athens County's lowest juvenile court caseload in almost 10 years, said a court official.
From 2005 to 2006, the number of cases dropped 32.8 percent, from 442 to 297 cases, according to figures obtained from the juvenile court.
Part of the decline in formal cases comes from the aggressive efforts to pre-screen situations and divert qualifying individuals from formal court proceedings
said Judge Robert Stewart of the Athens County Juvenile Court.
The number of charges filed against juveniles also depends upon policing efforts and how prosecutors view certain types of offenses, Stewart said.
It's not a steady decline Stewart said. Statistically 2007 may end up going upward. It's not a pattern that helps us predict the future.
The number of juveniles who go straight to a diversion program instead of through the judicial process has increased by 5.8 percent from 2005 to 2006, bucking a downward trend for the number of youths considered for diversion eligibility during the past six years.
Another reason juvenile caseloads have decreased in the past 10 years is the RECLAIM Ohio initiative, which provides funding for Ohio counties to develop more alternatives to state-level detention, said Tom Vander Ven, associate professor of sociology and criminology coordinator at Ohio University.
The RECLAIM Ohio program was created in 1997 to provide funding for individual courts to create programs that fit their systems, said Mark Rhoades, director of diversion programs for Athens County. RECLAIM must divide $30 million between 88 counties in Ohio every year.
Athens County received almost $27,000 in 2006 from RECLAIM, a sharp decrease from almost $96,000 in 2005, when the four-year average of adjudicated felony offenders indicated higher funding levels by the state's formula.
The funding system motivates juvenile court systems to avoid sending offenders to the Ohio Department of Youth Services (DYS) and to create more localized juvenile services instead, Rhoades said.
The number of juveniles statewide committed to DYS is holding even from 2005 to 2006, at about 1,880 youths. This is a 48 percent decrease from 1994 to 2005. Youths in the DYS facilities are felony-level offenders who are not eligible for more localized diversion and probation programs.
The emphasis of DYS programs is still rehabilitation, said Stewart.
With fewer juveniles in the care of DYS, the more serious offenders housed in its system can receive more personalized care, Vander Ven said.
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