Youth Law T.E.A.M. of Indiana, Inc.

a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization

Influencing positive systemic change in youth's legal issues in the juvenile justice, education and child welfare systems within Indiana.

Indiana Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI)

445 N. Pennsylvania Street, Suite 520 Indianapolis, Indiana 46204

Phone: (317) 916-0786 Fax: (317) 916-5369

www.youthlawteam.org

The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI), a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is a detention reform and juvenile justice system improvement initiative that has demonstrated over 20 years, in urban and rural jurisdictions, that moving low-risk youth from secure detention into community-based alternative programs is excellent public policy. JDAI has established outstanding public safety outcomes, minimized detention over-crowding and the need to build more expensive facilities creating savings for taxpayers, improved efficiencies in the juvenile justice system operations, and produced better outcomes for youth and their families.

JDAI is a comprehensive initiative of eight strategies involving system-wide change in philosophy, practice and policy. Marion County (Indianapolis) Indiana originally became a JDAI local expansion site in 2006 with funding support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute and local community funds. Since that time, the county has enacted a number of system-reform efforts which have reduced the detention population by nearly 50% while also maintaining public safety. Since October 2009, Indiana has embarked upon a statewide expansion of the Annie E. Casey Foundation Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) model program. http://indianacourts.us/times/2009/10/juvenile-detention-alternatives-initiative-in-indiana/

The Youth Law T.E.A.M. of Indiana was chosen to act as the JDAI Statewide Coordinator and a Statewide Expansion Team, consisting of 11 members representing state agencies and organizations, participated in a model site visit coordinated by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to the state of New Jersey during May, 2010. Subsequent to this visit, it was determined that additional state agency leaders should be included to spearhead this important initiative. The Indiana Department of Correction and the Indiana Supreme Court agreed to become members of a lead-agency team along with the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.

In October 2010, four additional counties were added as Statewide Expansion sites, bringing the total to eight (8) Indiana JDAI County Expansion sites.

The eight Indiana JDAI Expansion Sites are:

Marion County (2006) Clark County (2010)

Lake County (2009) Elkhart County (2010)

Porter County (2009) Howard County (2010)

Tippecanoe County (2009) Johnson County (2010)

During 2011, a state-level Steering Committee is being convened to plan Indiana's multi-year, multi-site initiative and implement initial steps. This Steering Committee includes representatives from multiple state-level child serving and juvenile justice entities as well as the Casey Foundation Technical Assistance Team Leader and representatives from each of the county replication sites. The agenda of the JDAI Steering Committee in Indiana will change over the course of the initiative from an initial focus on convening stakeholders and building infrastructure to greater focus on substantive issues, such as sustainable funding and policy change.

For more information on the Annie E. Casey Foundation JDAI program, visit: http://www.aecf.org/MajorInitiatives/JuvenileDetentionAlternativesInitiative.aspx