By Leslie Dunn, Deputy Director for Children & Families | Office of Court Services
In 2022, the Indiana General Assembly adopted H.E.A. 1359, creating the Youth Justice Oversight Committee (YJOC) tasked with comprehensive juvenile justice system reform. Chief Justice Loretta Rush appointed Justice Steven David (ret.) as YJOC chair and other youth justice professionals to serve as members. Justice David completed his term as chair in June 2023. Chief Justice Rush appointed Judge Dana Kenworthy of the Indiana Court of Appeals as the new chair in October 2023.
YJOC Deliverables
The General Assembly directed the YJOC to prepare a report including the following deliverables:
- a plan for collecting and reporting statewide juvenile justice data
- policies, procedures, and an implementation plan for use of a validated risk screening tool to inform statewide diversion decisions, dispositional decisions, and secure detention
- criteria for diagnostic assessments
- a statewide behavioral health plan for services to youth in the juvenile justice system
- policies and protocols for research-based pretrial diversion and informal adjustment programs and practices
- a plan for juvenile diversion and community alternatives grants and behavioral health competitive grant pilots
- policies, protocols, and a statewide implementation plan for transitional services for youth who are wards of the Department of Correction
- statewide juvenile probation standards, with input from the Judicial Conference of Indiana
Grant Programs
The General Assembly further tasked the YJOC to complete a plan for diversion and community alternatives grants, as well as behavioral health grant pilots by January 1, 2023, that included:
- the amount of money dedicated to each grant;
- the funding formula, accounting for the needs of both more rural and more populated communities;
- the required set of performance measures that counties receiving the grants must collect and report; and
- the process to streamline and manage the entire grant life cycle.
The YJOC provided the Grant Programs Report, which was largely the result of its Grants Process workgroup, to the General Assembly in December 2022. This report outlines the parameters and recommendations for the diversion, community alternatives, and behavioral health pilot grants. As a result of the Grant Programs Report, the General Assembly appropriated $5 million each for diversion and community alternatives grants to counties, along with $20 million for behavioral health pilot grant programs in the 2023-2024 state budget.
The diversion and community alternatives grants are available to every county using a funding formula based on county population, with increased funding available to rural counties that have the most need for programs and service providers. The base amount of each grant for diversion and community alternatives is $37,500. Additional funds in the amounts of $5,000, $10,000, and $15,000 are added to the base amount based on county population, with smaller counties receiving more funding to comply with the statutory requirement of focus on rural counties. Both public and nonprofit entities are eligible to apply for the grants.
The YJOC Reports are the direct result of the efforts made by the committee’s seven workgroups: Behavioral Health, Data, Diversion, Grants Process, Juvenile Probation Standards, Screening and Assessment, and Transitional Services.
The behavioral health pilot grants are competitive grants. The purpose of these grants is to support jurisdictions, especially in rural areas, in evaluating a child’s behavioral health needs and divert the child from formal court involvement and out of home placements into community or school-based mental health treatment. Grant recipients must use a mental health screening tool and can use the funds to conduct activities listed in the statute or other activities aimed at supporting the mental and behavioral health needs of the target population of youth.
Applications for grants, administered by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, became available in October 2023. ICJI awarded grants to thirty-two different programs across three grant types: six behavioral health grants, nine community alternatives grants, and seventeen diversion grants. Each grant awarded is overseen by the local regional justice reinvestment council or another local collaborative body that includes juvenile justice stakeholders and engages in collaborative service planning for the county. The local collaborative body must include the judicial officer from the court with juvenile jurisdiction or their designee. Counties seeking to establish new programming and services can also apply for planning grants. In the initial round of grants, nine planning grants were awarded.
Grant opportunities for justice involved youth arising out of the YJOC are available on a rolling basis. Counties may apply to receive all three grants and/or may apply for a planning grant to meet with their local juvenile justice stakeholders to develop diversion, community alternatives, or behavioral health programming before they apply for an implementation grant. More information about the grants, including recorded webinars, are available on ICJI’s website.
YJOC Final Report
The YJOC Final Report is a culmination of the recommendations of each of its additional six workgroups: Behavioral Health, Data, Diversion, Juvenile Probation Standards, Screening and Assessment, and Transitional Services. A Youth and Family Advisory Group met with each of the workgroups and provided input from parents and youth with lived experience in the juvenile justice system. This group was coordinated by VOICES, Inc., and issued their own Youth and Family Advisory Group Report based on their experiences.
Key Recommendations from YJOC Report and Next Steps:
1. Data.
The YJOC adopted a list of defined data points that each county will collect of youth characteristics, case processing events, system statuses, programming, and services. YJOC will assess the current availability of each data point by sampling data from up to twenty Indiana counties. YJOC will also conduct a one-year pilot study with five Indiana counties that commit to fully adopt and implement the data collection procedures. These activities will inform the development of local and statewide performance measures.
2. Risk Screening and Assessment.
Counties must continue to use the Indiana Youth Assessment System (IYAS) tools and can also use appropriate complementary assessments. YJOC recommended changes to IYAS policies, listed elements that each county must address in their written policies and procedures regarding detention decisions, and outlined steps for sharing risk screening and assessment results. The Board of Directors of the Judicial Conference has to adopt any changes to IYAS policies. The YJOC also recommended additional training for all stakeholders on the use of the IYAS tools and any policy changes.
3. Behavioral Health.
YJOC recommended:
- that local counties develop and adopt a plan and policies regarding the use of court-ordered diagnostic or psychological assessments;
- expanding the use of telehealth for mental health services and diagnostic or psychological assessments; and
- use of a multidisciplinary team model for high acuity youth.
4. Diversion.
The YJOC made recommendations to guide the development of diversion programs and to guide the use of Informal Adjustments.
5. Transitional Services.
The YJOC recommended enhancing opportunities for all youth released from the Division of Youth Services of the Department of Correction to receive transitional services to assist them in re-integrating back into their communities. The pilot counties for the Data Workgroup will also conduct a review of how transitional services are being utilized currently including any available data.
6. Juvenile Probation Standards.
H.E.A. 1359 required the Judicial Conference of Indiana, Juvenile Probation Standards Workgroup (JPSW), in consultation with the YJOC, to develop statewide juvenile probation standards for juvenile probation supervision and services that are aligned with research based best practices and based on a youth’s risk of reoffending as measured by a validated risk and needs assessment tool. After presenting them to the YJOC, the JPSW made recommendations to the Judicial Conference of Indiana in June 2023, and the Conference adopted the recommended changes. These new probation standards are effective July 1, 2024.
The YJOC re-convened in November 2023 under Judge Kenworthy’s leadership to oversee the grant solicitation and grant review process as well as to move forward with the data pilot projects and other recommendations. The YJOC met again in February 2024 to review the grants awarded to counties by ICJI to further the objectives of the YJOC and to hear the workgroups’ progress in developing action plans for the recommendations in their reports.