The Floyd County Juvenile Court recognizes that Justice Hunstein has been a great friend and supporter of the Juvenile Justice system in Georgia. She has regularly worked with our Juvenile Courts and our Council of Juvenile Court Judges, even attending our conferences.
Floyd County Juvenile Court is pleased to see that State level attention is being paid to the plight of our youth and families and gives thanks as well to the Governor for implementing the State's Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform which has worked with both the Supreme Court's Commission on Juvenile Justice as well as the Council of Juvenile Court Judges in formulating recommendations to help improve our services to youth and families.
Although it appears that there is in fact a monetary motivation for reform, (i.e. Justice Hunstein and the Governor's Commission indicated substantial State funds to be saved by not detaining Ungovernable, Runaway, and misdemeanor delinquent offenders) the Juvenile Court of Floyd County is more excited that the State Officials have begun to recognize that there is a need to actually fund from the State level, those desperately needed Community Based resources which have not been previously funded by the State. As well, we are especially excited by Justice Hunstein's remarks that more funding for services involving mental health care for children and families is needed as well as an increase in resources for caring for and treating youthful drug offenders.
Floyd County Juvenile Court actually has anticipated the need for these changes and began approximately two years ago to forge a new direction in juvenile delinquent matters. We created and implemented a new concept in delinquent probation trying to identify the underlying cause of the child's inappropriate behavior and not just to put a "band aid" on the problem. We now utilize behavioral and mental health testing protocols, family environmental investigations and support from an independent Court Mental Health Consultant to formulate a "Success Plan" to help effect a "cure", not just "treat the symptom". Delinquent actions are many times motivated by underlying mental health, behavioral and environmental problems in the life of a child. We feel our new delinquent probation system is effective, in that according to Department of Juvenile Justice data as well as data from our own Court records, we have reduced the number of Commitments of Delinquent children to State custody from 65 in 2010 to 20 for the year 2012….an approximate 66% reduction!
Although the Governor has proposed legislation to allocate Five Million dollars to provide such community based resources as alternatives to detention, the fact remains that it appears that these funds will be allocated initially to the top number of counties with greater detention statistics. We do not know yet how much of the funds will be provided to Floyd County, or even if Floyd Count will receive funds initially. We must simply await legislative action in that regard. A concern is that even if you were to evenly allocate the $5million fund to each of the 159 counties each counties allocation would only come to an approximate $31,000.00.
Obviously, Floyd County Juvenile Court hopes that the new directions that we are implementing locally, and the new attitude of State leaders to our Juvenile Justice System will lead to better services for our youth and families, and even more success in Juvenile rehabilitation.
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