A change in definitions and a $48,000 cut in its funding caused the Community Corrections Advisory Board to pull support from three prevention programs during its meeting Wednesday at the Lyon County Courthouse.
The board voted, after lengthy deliberations, not to fund Big Brothers Big Sisters, Chase County Mentors and the MORE after-school program at Olpe junior and senior high schools for the coming fiscal year.
Big Brothers Big Sisters had received $28,959 this fiscal year; Chase County Mentors, $15,264; and MORE, $3,150.
“They’re all good programs,” said Robert Sullivan, Community Corrections executive director. “This was a tough decision. It’d be easy if you had a program that wasn’t submitting reports or wasn’t doing what they said they’d do.
“That wasn’t the case at all. All of these programs had done exactly what they said they would do.”
The programs all served what is considered low-risk youths that John Paul Wright, Ph.D., of Cincinnati University, concluded that the Fifth Judicial District concentrated too much of its funding on youngsters who were low-risk. Wright was hired as a consultant to create a comprehensive plan for community corrections.
“What Dr. Wright argued is that this makes it difficult to evaluate their preventive impact since relatively more pro-social and better-adjusted families and youth are likely to participate. So they’re very good programs. This was in no way a reflection on these programs,” Sullivan said. “You’re trying to make the most out of very limited resources.”
Sullivan said that $86,414 will be available for prevention programs in Fiscal Year 2010, the same as FY 2009.
He expects the board to allocate the money at its Jan. 13 meeting or, if necessary, at the February gathering.
The effect of the consultant’s recommendation was compounded by the Juvenile Justice Administration’s change in its definitions of what constituted prevention programs.
Prevention is administered at three levels, defined in this manner by JJA for FY 2010:
- Primary Prevention: A program or service directed at the population at-large that is designed to prevent juvenile crime.
- Secondary Prevention: A program or service directed at populations or persons identified as at-risk for juvenile crime involvement that is designed to prevent juvenile crime before it occurs.
- Tertiary Prevention: A program or service provided to youth and families after an incident of juvenile criminal behavior has occurred (arrest). The intervention is designed to prevent future incidents from occurring.
The budget burden was further strained by the truancy program coming into competition with other prevention programs for funds, Sullivan said.
The truancy program fits the definition of secondary prevention.
Family Solutions, a program operated through the Mental Health Center of East Central Kansas, meets the definition of tertiary prevention. The program, which involves family and friends of juvenile offenders as well as the offenders themselves, has been successful and is being used in some areas as a model for intervention to prevent juveniles from being involved in other crimes or incidents.
In other action, the CCAB approved asking the Kansas Department of Corrections for $31,159 in unexpended funds.
Sullivan planned to attend today’s Lyon County Commission study session to request assistance with a JJA incentive grant for a community service project that will involve law enforcement in Chase and Lyon Counties.
“JJA will provide $18,120 on the condition that a local unit of government does a dollar-for-dollar grant,” Sullivan explained.
The request then could be considered by the commission at its action session on Thursday.
Sullivan said the money will be used in an effort to remove graffiti from buildings and structures in both counties. Work on the removal would be done by youths who have been court-ordered to complete community service hours.
“If the court ordered a youth to complete X number of hours of community service, it may or may not be related to graffiti,” Sullivan said. “We’re going to use their efforts to remove the graffiti and make (the district) look better.”
Application for the grant must be submitted by Dec. 15.
“If the commission decides not to fund it, then I’ll simply notify JJA that we will not be submitting the grant,” he said.