(New York) City Signals Intent to Send Fewer Teenagers to Jail

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The Bloomberg administration plans to merge the city’s Department of Juvenile Justice into its child welfare agency, signaling a more therapeutic approach toward delinquency that will send fewer of the city’s troubled teenagers to jail.

The integration of the agencies is effective immediately, an announcement Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is expected to make during his State of the City speech Wednesday afternoon.

City officials said that under the new arrangement, youths who commit crimes but are not considered dangerous will have easier access to an expanding portfolio of in-home programs managed by the Administration for Children’s Services, the child welfare agency, allowing them to stay in their neighborhoods with their families while following a strict set of rules requiring them to stay out of trouble, keep curfews and meet educational goals.

Juvenile offenders, usually between the ages of 11 and 16, are typically in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice before trial and sentencing. The department places defendants in group homes or in one of three detention centers. Upon sentencing, the judge’s most frequent options are to release offenders on probation or send them to one of the state’s juvenile prisons or residential facilities run by nonprofit organizations.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/nyregion/21juvenile.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all