Juvenile Community Supervision Improvement

The Improving Outcomes for Youth in Confinement and While under Community Supervision Program provides grants to states, units of local government, and federally recognized tribal governments that support the development and implementation of comprehensive plans to improve reentry outcomes for incarcerated youth and youth under community supervision. It does so by promoting evidence-based strategies to reduce recidivism, improve other outcomes, and prevent any further progression into 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

The Ensuring Public Safety and Improving Outcomes for Youth in Confinement and While under Community Supervision program supports treatment services for youth with co-occurring mental illnesses and substance addictions, reentry services for youth who were previously involved in gangs, and improved community supervision practices for youth who are placed on probation or are being released from secure confinement.

The objectives of this program are to:

• Plan and convene advisory group meetings that include leadership from juvenile justice, behavioral health, probation, social service, corrections, and other agencies that provide medical services in youth facilities, with the goal of developing a comprehensive range of recovery support services that can be provided through partnerships before and after release;
• Improve screening and assessment processes and tools;
• Develop collaborative comprehensive case management strategies;
• Improve information-sharing capabilities to carry out comprehensive case plans and family engagement strategies;
• Plan for screening youth who enter the secure facility for substance addictions and mental illnesses;
• Incorporate evidence-based practices—including cognitive behavioral health interventions to address criminogenic risk before and after release—and evidence-based services—such as medication-assisted treatment—when appropriate; and
• Develop and implement transition planning procedures to ensure that linkages to needed services and benefits are available.

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

Current and Past Grantees

OJJDP has awarded 16 grants through this program:

• 6 grants in 2015
• 5 grantsin 2016
• 4 grants for services for youth with co-occurring mental illnesses and substance addictions and 1 grant for services for youth who were previously involved in gangs in 2018