Samira Jafari
Associated Press Writer
August 4, 2005

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Seventy percent of the youth released from Alabama juvenile detention centers in 2001 and 2002 have returned to state custody within two years and nearly half percent returned multiple times, according to a study released Thursday by child advocacy groups.

Members of the Children First Foundation and VOICES for Alabama's Children, which sponsored the study, blamed the high recidivism rates on the lack of mental health and community-based rehabilitation programs available at the state Department of Youth Services.

DYS is spending too much state money on locking kids up instead of implementing cost-effective alternatives, said Criminal Appeals Court Judge Sue Bell Cobb, founder of the Children First organization that seeks increased funding for children's programs.

She said DYS should try alternatives such as Multisystemic Therapy, a behavior therapy program that focuses on high-risk juvenile offenders and their families.

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Cobb and the other advocates said DYS proved its lack of interest when it refused to allow Children First to perform a joint review of the state's juvenile detention center. The review was omitted from a bill approving $12.5 million in DYS funding from the Children First Trust Fund, a state program established from Alabama's share of the national tobacco settlement.

"You've got to wonder, what it is that they don't want people to know," Cobb said.

DYS Chief Walter Wood issued a statement Thursday saying he hadn't reviewed the recidivism study, but hopes to do so and "utilize it as an additional tool to further evaluate and assess all programs of the Department."

DYS spokesman Allen Peaton said the agency's spending and programs are held accountable through legislative budget committees and state agencies, including the Children First Trust Fund, which reviews how DYS spends its budget each year.

"An additional committee seemed unnecessary," Peaton said.

But those releasing the study said DYS isn't getting balanced oversight from the Legislature since Rep. Locy Baker, D-Abbeville, sits on both the House Government Finance and Appropriation Committee and the DYS board of directors.

"When you have DYS reviewing its own programs, it's like a fox guarding the hen house," said Graham Champion, chair of the Children First Foundation board of directors.

The study of the some 5,000 juveniles released in 2001 and 2002, conducted by the Center for Demographic and Cultural Research at Auburn University at Montgomery, found that juveniles who spend more time in DYS custody are more likely to land in prison.

Boys are also more likely to return to DYS custody than girls and there is a higher recidivism rate for blacks than whites, according to the study. Age also played a role: 59 percent of repeat offenders were ages 16-18 at the time of release, while 38 percent were ages 13-15.

Wood, in his statement, pointed out that in addition to incarcerating young offenders, DYS provides education, drug treatment, anger management and other programs to help reduce recidivism.

But, he said, the study "appears to point out the areas of the juvenile justice system which can certainly use improvement: far too many youth return to state care."

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