Office of Justice Programs, Innovation - Partnerships – Safer Neighborhoods

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Serving Children, Families and Communities

OJJDP Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders

Correct Course Diversion Program (Wayne County, Mich.)

Intervention:

Wayne County has acknowledged that disproportionate minority contact is a problem within the juvenile justice population, and a federally funded task force has been appointed to address the issue. One part of the transformation of the Wayne County juvenile justice system is the development of a community-based, post-arrest diversion program. A diversion program aimed at lowering rates of recidivism and improving psychosocial functioning could lead to not only cost savings for the county but also fewer disproportionate minority contacts for youth.

The Correct Course diversion program is a post-arrest diversion initiative run by the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office in Detroit, Mich. The initiative is aimed at diverting youth from further penetrating the juvenile justice system at the earliest point of contact. The goal is to connect youth and families with local resources outside of the judicial system. The program refers low-risk juvenile offenders, who might otherwise be placed under juvenile court supervision, to an alternative community-based local Youth Assistance Program (YAP), which provides services to youth and families in their own neighborhoods.

Components of Correct Course include rapid, standardized assessment (providing an individualized plan for addressing youth needs); engagement of parents and caregivers; access to mental health and substance use specialized services as needed; general oversight of provided services; and evaluation of outcomes.

It is ultimately the prosecutor's office that can decide to recommend youth to the Correct Course diversion program. The prosecutor has the option to refer youth whose cases might have otherwise been dismissed. The prosecutor can also make a referral at the pre-petition hearing for youth who are not in custody, or he or she can refer youth directly to the program, avoiding the pre-petition hearing altogether. Youth in custody at the detention center can also be referred to the diversion program. When the youth and family agree to participate in the program, the youth waives the right to a trial regarding the pending charges. However, upon successful completion of the program, charges against the youth are dismissed.

The Wayne County Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC), which is the single access point for all adjudicated and at-risk youth in the county, is administratively responsible for the program. The JAC is responsible for formally enrolling youth in the program, administering the Juvenile Inventory for Functioning (JIFF) assessment at pre-diversion and post-diversion, providing consultation when issues arise, and tracking whether services are received.

The JIFF is a self-administered, computerized interview that yields a service plan based on the youth's needs. Both the youth and caregivers report on the youth's needs via the JIFF. Upon completion of the interview, an individualized list of goals is produced to address the needs indicated by the respondent's answers. The JAC staff member, in collaboration with the youth and parent/caregiver, uses the results of the JIFF assessment to select goals for the youth, match services to each goal, and prioritize the goals. The family is given a copy of their service plan and told their local YAP will contact them. The JIFF Service Plan informs the YAP about the specific needs and goals of each youth as they work with the family.

When youth are enrolled in the Correct Course diversion program, they are assigned to an appropriate YAP, primarily based on the family's zip code. Youth typically receive services for 3 months, but some may continue for up to 6 months. The staff at YAPs work with the youth and family and provide a variety of services meant to improve the youth's functioning across various life domains. Although all YAPs are required to offer several common core components, they have the freedom to vary widely in their approaches for accomplishing these goals. Examples of services offered by YAPs include monitoring school attendance, job training, parent education, conflict resolution, family engagement activities, violence prevention programs, anger management, and helping families connect with local resources to address issues such as domestic violence.

Overall, the initiative works to ensure a partnership between youth and their families, the juvenile justice system (including the prosecutor's office, family court judges, and the JAC), and local YAPs.

Evaluation Methodology:

Study 1
Hodges and colleagues (2011) looked at the effects of the Correct Course diversion program by assessing a sample of youth who had been referred to the program from May 2007 to May 2009. Youth were post-arrest and under the jurisdiction of the Wayne County juvenile justice system. During this time, 1,017 youth enrolled in the program and completed the entry assessment (the Juvenile Inventory for Functioning [JIFF]). Only a subset of the sample (259 youth) was administered the JIFF again upon completion of the program. The main limitation of this study, however, is that there was no comparison group available for analysis, so results should be interpreted with caution.

The overall sample of youth (n=1,017) was 62 percent male. Sixty-three percent were African American, 31 percent were white, 4 percent were Hispanic, and 3 percent were of "other" races. Ages ranged from 8 to 19 years, with an average age of 14.65 years. Most youth had been charged with class 3 lesser felonies (13 percent), class 4 misdemeanors (48 percent), and class 5 status offenses (32 percent). The subset of youth who had completed the JIFF at entry and exit from the program (n=259) was 64 percent male. Sixty-eight percent of the subset were African American, 27 percent were white, 2 percent were Hispanic, and 3 percent were of "other" races. Ages ranged from 9 to 17 years, with an average age of 14.85. Most youth in this group had been charged with class 3 lesser felonies (17 percent), class 4 misdemeanors (50 percent), class 5 status offenses (21 percent), and unknown charges (10 percent). The two groups were significantly different in a number of characteristics: the subset of youth was older and had a larger proportion of African American youth but a smaller proportion of white youth compared to the overall sample. Also, the subset of the overall sample had a higher proportion of youth who had been charged with class 3 lesser felonies and a lower proportion of youth who had been charged with class 5 status offenses.

One of the primary measures of interest was recidivism. In the current study, the criterion used to define recidivism was adjudication for another offense within 1 year post-Youth Assistance Program service. The operational definition was adjudication for an offense within 455 days from the day of enrollment in the Correct Course program, which allows for a 1-year follow-up after 3 months of service. This definition was used because adjudication ensures the court was satisfied that the youth committed a crime. However, as the authors noted, the criterion of using rearrest would be more vulnerable to factors underlying disproportionate minority contact, which is a concern in Detroit. Nevertheless, rearrest was not used to define recidivism.

The other outcome of interest was the psychosocial functioning measured by the JIFF assessment. The JIFF is an assessment process that starts with an interview and ends with a JIFF Service Plan. The interview is a self-guided computerized interview that identifies the youth's needs across 10 domains of functioning: school, home (non-compliance), peer influences, unsafe community behavior, feelings (i.e. trauma, depression, and anxiety), self-harm potential, substance use, thinking (i.e. irrationality), health related needs, and family environment.

Binary logistic regression was conducted to identify predictors of recidivism. For the subset of youth who had completed the JIFF at entry and exit of the diversion program, mean differences of the JIFF total score and each of the subscales were computed, and a paired t-test investigated the significance of change observed over time. If a statistically significant change was observed, the Cohen's d statistic can be generated, which reflects the magnitude of change observed.

Evaluation Outcome:

Study 1
Recidivism
For all 1,017 youth included in the initial study sample, the rate of adjudication within 1 year post-Youth Assistance Program service was 7.7 percent. Only 14 individuals (1.3 percent of the sample) escalated from a status offense or misdemeanor to a felony level crime.

Psychosocial Functioning
For the 259 youth who completed the JIFF scales at the beginning and end of the program, significant improvements were observed for the JIFF total score and all subscales (school, home, picked on by peers, unsafe community behavior, feelings, self-harm potential, substance use, health-related need, and family environment). However, there were no improvements on the peer influences subscale. The highest d statistics (which reflect the magnitude of change observed) were detected for the total score and the school and home subscales.

Cost
The exact cost savings of the Correct Course diversion program cannot be calculated because it is not known how many diverted youth, without the availability of the diversion program, would have received any of the following costly services: continued court processing, remaining longer in detention rather than being released early, or being assigned to probation or other post adjudication services.

The cost of 6 months of services in a Youth Assistance Program, including assessment and administration coordination via the Juvenile Assessment Center, was $1,500 per youth. Comparatively, housing youth in a residential facility for service costs an average of $200 per day or $36,000 per youth for 6 months. Juveniles assigned to intensive probation services cost $50 per day or $9,000 per youth for 6 months. The potential savings for Wayne County were estimated to range between $75,000 and $22,000 per youth (Hodges et al., 2011).

References:

Kay Hodges, Lisa A. Martin, Cynthia Smith, and Shaun Cooper. 2011. "Recidivism, Costs, and Psychosocial Outcomes for a Post-Arrest Juvenile Diversion Program." Journal of Offender Rehabilitation 50:447–65.

Program Specification:

Program Type:

Detention Alternative

Diversion

Wraparound / Case Management

Ethnicity:

African American

Hispanic or Latino (of any race)

White

Other Ethnicity

Gender:

Both

Age:

Elementary School: 5 to 10 years
Middle School: 11 to 13 years
High School/Young Adult: 14 to 21 years

Target Settings:

Urban

Problem Behaviors:

Status Offenses (non-specific)

DSO Strategies:

Direct Services

DSO Intervention Types:

Immediate Sanctions

Core Requirements:

Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders (DSO)

Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC)

Additional Information:

Endorsements:

Status:

Program is in operation at this time.

Performance Measures:

Suggested OJJDP Performance Measures for the Program Types(s):

Contact Information:

Program Developer:

Wayne County Prosecutor, Juvenile Division
Lincoln Hall of Justice
Detroit, MI 48207
Phone: 313.833.2400
WebSite: http://www.co.wayne.mi.us/prosecutor/correct_course.htm

OJJDP Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders Best Practices Database
The OJJDP Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders Best Practices Database was created and developed by Development Services Group
under Cooperative Agreement #2008-JF-FX-0072.