Implementing County and Statewide Plans to Improve Outcomes for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System

This program supports counties and states that have already developed a systemwide plan to reduce recidivism and improve other outcomes for youth in the juvenile justice system. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) administers the awards.

Objectives and Deliverables

Grantees must be able to develop and execute a strategy to:

• Implement an existing plan (formalized through legislation, appropriations, or other key policy and practice changes) to better align juvenile justice policy, practice, and resource allocation with what research indicates reduces recidivism and improves other outcomes for youth in the juvenile justice system;
• Implement additional policy, practice, and resource-allocation changes with fidelity to research-based strategies; and
• Track recidivism rates and other youth outcomes—such as educational achievement—to measure implementation progress; share this data with system leaders and policymakers; and use the data to hold providers and agencies accountable for results, as well as guide implementation improvements.

Grantees must demonstrate a high level of collaboration and coordination across agencies and systems, including the establishment of a juvenile community supervision reform task force composed of relevant state, tribal, territorial, or local leaders; service providers; nonprofit organizations; and other stakeholders.

For more information about this program, see the most recent OJJDP grant solicitation.

Current and Past Grantees

OJJDP awarded three grants in 2016 and four grants in 2017 for the implementation of these initiatives.