CENTER ON JUVENILE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE PRESS RELEASE
		www.cjcj.org

For Immediate Release: Monday March 25, 2003

Community-based Alternative to Juvenile Detention a Success with Youth Offenders, New Findings Show

CONTACT: Daniel Macallair
E-mail: [dmacallair@cjcj.org]
Tel: (415) 621-5661 x310

PHILADELPHIA, PA: For decades, Philadelphia's juvenile detention facilities have been fraught with lawsuits for unsafe conditions from overcrowding as well as for detaining minorities at disproportionate rates. Community-based alternatives have become increasingly favored to alleviate these problems and have been shown to be more or at least as effective as facilities in reducing recidivism but in a far more humane and less stigmatizing fashion.

An evaluation of Philadelphia's Detention Diversion Advocacy Program (DDAP), commissioned by Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, determined that since its inception in 2000, it is well on its way toward alleviating the overcrowding endemic to the city's secure detention facilities and reducing both the disproportionate confinement of minority youth as well as the unnecessary use of locked detention. Notably, only 4% of DDAP clients missed their weekly court appearances and only 6.2% of DDAP clients were rearrested during program tenure. Dan Macallair, executive director for CJCJ, notes, "The multiple successes of DDAP add further support to the mounting evidence that community-based programs are truly viable and invaluable alternatives to the locked detention of youth."

DDAP, a community-based alternative to staying in a secure detention facility while awaiting adjudication, provides case management to ensure delinquent youth will attend their scheduled court hearings and to reduce the likelihood that a they will re-offend while awaiting case deposition. Major findings indicate that:

· 87% of all DDAP clients are minorities, meaning each minority placed with DDAP is one less minority in a locked facility.

· More youth were placed on probation from DDAP than from those detained in locked facilities.

· 59% of clients are in detention status for felonies, which would have otherwise warranted placement in locked detention. There are however, numerous cases of clients with misdemeanors.

The evaluation concludes that, "[T]he DDAP program was implemented in a such a way as to be able to address key programmatic goals through intensive case management, collaboration with parents, judges, and schools, and a caring yet authoritative technique in working with clients… DDAP should be able to forge greater successes in the coming years."

DDAP director, Darold Williams, adds, "We hope that the success exemplified by DDAP continues to promote the trend of humane alternatives in youth justice."

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