Wyoming incarcerates more juveniles per capita than any other state in the country, with the exception of South Dakota. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) report entitled Youth residing in juvenile detention and correctional facilities, Wyoming currently ranks 49th with only South Dakota higher at 50th in juvenile incarcerations. These incarcerations do not address the underlying problems causing the juvenile's behavior and can actually make the underlying problems worse. Creating successful diversion programs is one of the ways that we can transform Wyoming's failed juvenile justice system.
The following chart compares Wyoming to national juvenile arrest rates for 2006 through 2010.
Wyoming's juvenile arrest rates have consistently been significantly higher than the comparable arrest rates based on the national average.
One of Wyoming's persistent problems is the lack of sustainable diversion programs. The national pilot Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI) program was created to address this problem. JDAI Team Leader Rand Young states that this national program has an established track record for lowering juvenile crime rates while saving communities money over the more expensive locked facility detentions. Rand Young has repeated these claims in regard to JDAI programs throughout the country, including the pilot program currently underway in Wyoming.
Wyoming has been one of the states most resistant to reformation of the juvenile justice system, a position well documented by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, (AECF) and Kids Count Wyoming including a heartbreaking video about the Wyoming system entitled "Your neighbor's child" produced in 2011 and available through the Kids Count website as well as this YouTube posting. While it is useful to model our reform efforts on top performing states like Vermont and Hawaii, it is also informative to look at other states that were facing juvenile delinquency issues and made the deliberate decision to transform their juvenile justice practices.
Top-ranked Vermont is difficult to chart against for juvenile judicial statistics because they largely pursue pre-adjudication diversion options for their at-risk juveniles. Rather than formal charges for such offenses as substance abuse or vandalism, Vermont diverts juveniles into programs designed to create behavioral change and prevent at-risk youth from escalating any criminal behavior. Wyoming has no documented usage of any pre-adjudication diversion programs. Consequently, every juvenile who is considered for the few available diversion programs is facing formal criminal convictions should they fail to complete their programs. This fundamental difference means that the many Vermont children enrolled in pre-adjudication programs are cared for in their local communities rather than entering the official categorized statistics.
Iowa is an interesting state to consider because they have used a combination of pre and post-adjudication diversion programs as a critical component of their juvenile justice reform. Although Iowa currently is graded at only a 'C' level, according to the most recent state rankings by the AECF, the Iowa juvenile population most at-risk is comparable to Wyoming's. The following table illustrates juveniles between ages 16 and 19 neither employed nor in school in Iowa and Wyoming, the population largely considered most at risk for criminal behavior according to juvenile justice advocates including the AECF funded Kids Count initiative.
Concurrent with Iowa's recent juvenile justice reforms Iowa has maintained a lower percentage of juveniles neither employed nor in school while Wyoming has been as high as 9% for these particularly at-risk juveniles. The averages for these ten years are 5.6% for Iowa and 6.7% for Wyoming.
According to an article published in June of 2012 entitled Juvenile Crime Dips in Iowa, Iowa's significant gains in juvenile justice issues are credited to successful diversion programs and research. Linn County Iowa's Chief Juvenile Officer Candice Bennett states: "We're fortunate in that we have juvenile court offices engaging in practices that have significantly decreased juvenile delinquency acts … We should be proud of that."
Some critical differences between Wyoming and Iowa juvenile justice choices are specified in the following table.
In the last few years Wyoming built two substantial juvenile incarceration facilities. Faced with increased juvenile incarceration, Iowa initiated systematic reforms: "For years, the numbers [of juveniles incarcerated] gradually increased. We truly thought we were going to have to expand. But after a push for alternative programs and taking a harder look at what kids are actually incarcerated, our numbers have gone down." Peg Pangborn, director of Iowa's Linn County's Juvenile Detention and Diversion Services
The following chart illustrates Wyoming's usage of post-adjudication diversion programs in 2011 compared to Iowa's usage of diversion according to statistics available through the national OJJDP database.
It would be a significant improvement to adopt diversion programs that provided alternatives for offending juveniles. Wyoming remains the only non-OJJDP compliant state in the country.
One of the critical components in OJJDP standards, available in the 2013 report from the Wyoming Advisory Council on Juvenile Justice is "Eliminating the use of jail and juvenile detention as punishment for juveniles for acts that would not be a crime if they were an adult. Research clearly demonstrates that the use of detention to punish these behaviors actually increase future offenses."
Successful diversion programs in Wyoming would mean fewer juveniles formally prosecuted and sentenced and fewer youthful offenders burdened with criminal records before achieving adulthood. Pre-adjudication diversion is preferable because it would actually avoid criminal records through lack of formal charges, while post-adjudication diversion often only offers mitigation of the charges such as pleas in abeyance.
Wyoming currently has pilot programs for alternatives to detention funded by the AECF as well as programs like the Cowboy Challenge Academy sponsored by the Wyoming National Guard. Whether governmentally sponsored or privately funded, financial sustainability will be critical for the success of juvenile diversion programs.
The steps toward reformation of the juvenile justice system in Iowa began in 2007. If we in Wyoming begin to follow this same path in 2014 we can hope to see measurable improvements by 2020 through decreases in juvenile arrests and incarcerations. If we continue to do nothing it is likely that we will continue to see no changes and no improvements. It is our goal to move Wyoming's juvenile justice reform to the stage that, with Iowa's Officer Bennett, we can say we are
"…fortunate in that we have juvenile court offices engaging in practices that have significantly decreased juvenile delinquency acts … We should be proud of that."
i Interview with Linn County Iowa's Chief Juvenile Officer Candice Bennett January 2014
ii 2013 Annual Report of Wyoming State Advisory Council on Juvenile Justice
iii Statistics available through national OJJDP http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezacjrp/asp/Selection_cjrp.asp?state=19&topic=Offense_Adj&year=2011
iv Interview with Linn County Iowa's Chief Juvenile Officer Candice Bennett January 2014.
v Wyoming House Bill 0012, Juvenile Detention Facilities, Enrolled Act 0005 effective July 1, 2010 requires JDRA and tasks DFS with maintenance and administration of same http://www.njjn.org/uploads/digital-library/Juvenile-Detention-Risk-Assessment-Report-Wyoming-DFS-1.12.pdf.