Barbara Flynn Currie.
State Representative, 25th District
Blog
Redeploy Illinois Program for Troubled Youth
19 December 2008
News from Springfield..................by State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-25)
While state government is in some degree of disarray and an Illinois House Committee considers whether the Governor should be impeached, nevertheless issues don't go away. Following is a column about the Redeploy Illinois program that takes aim at getting troubled youth the help they need.
Five years ago the state embarked upon a program meant to divert non-violent youth offenders from costly state facilities to more effective programs in the community. Modeled after a successful Ohio initiative, the hope was that we would save money overall and increase the chances that troubled youth would get the help they need to stay out of trouble.
Before Redeploy Illinois, the economic incentives were perverse. If a county sent a youngster to the state Department of Juvenile Justice the state picked up the tab—more than $70,000 per year per child. If a county kept the child at home and offered counseling and other services—at a cost that averages approximately $5,000—the county picked up the bill.
So the point of Redeploy was to change the incentive. Counties that chose to participate—and offered quality programs—would be reimbursed for their costs of treatment.
The program is still relatively new, so we can’t provide a full set of statistics to attest to its success. But we do know that commitments to the Department have decreased considerably in the pilot sites—in St. Clair County, for example, commitments to the Department went from more than 60 on average to only ten in the most recent program year.
And we don’t yet have definitive numbers comparing repeat offenses between the Redeploy and the incarcerated youngsters. But the early evidence is very promising and, as expected, the youngsters in community programs seem far less likely to get in further trouble with the law.
This fall, during the veto session, I sponsored legislation to make Redeploy Illinois one of our permanent policy initiatives. The legislation passed the House unanimously. The Senate will reconvene the veto session on January 12, and I have every reason to hope that the Senate will give the bill its final approval.
In my view, helping make sure kids stay out of trouble should be one of our highest priorities. That the program may actually save taxpayers a lot of money is another good reason to make this program permanent.
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