Brief Summary of Substitute Bill

Requires the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration within the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to establish pilot programs to promote, using incentive as motivation, increased participation and success in juvenile offender evidence-based programs; the pilot programs shall be limited to evidence-based programs.
Requires that eligible counties for the pilot programs must have imposed the sales and use tax authorized by RCW 82.14.460 and that the pilot programs should be operational by March 1, 2010.
Requires the DSHS, in cooperation with the University of Washington, to evaluate the results of the pilot programs.
Requires the DSHS to provide a preliminary report to the Governor and the Legislature on the results of the pilot programs by December 1, 2011, and a final report by December 1, 2013.

Background:

In 2005 the Legislature directed the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) to report, by October 2006, whether economically sound, evidence-based options were available to: (1) reduce the future need for prison beds; (2) save money for state and local taxpayers; and (3) contribute to lower crime rates. The WSIPP released a report regarding evidence-based programs for both adult and juvenile offenders. In June 2007 the WSIPP issued a report that focused on evidence-based programs for juveniles. These community-based programs are currently available in the Washington Juvenile Justice System. The WSIPP concluded that these programs reduced recidivism and provided a benefit to taxpayers. The programs are:

Program	Description
Functional Family Therapy (FFT)	Family-based intervention that uses a multi-step approach to enhance protective factors and to reduce risk factors in the family.
Aggression Replacement Training (ART)	For juveniles who are formally assessed as having a moderate to high risk for re-offense and have a problem with aggression or lack skills in pro-social functioning.
Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST)	Focuses on improving the family's capacity to overcome the known causes of delinquency. Promotes the parent's ability to monitor and discipline their children and replace deviant peer relationships with pro-social friendships.
Family Integrated Transitions (FIT)	Designed for juvenile offenders with the co-occurring disorders of mental illness and chemical dependency, and who are re-entering the community after being detained in a Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration facility.
Coordination of Services (COS)	Provides an educational program to low-risk juvenile offenders and their parents. The goals are to describe the consequences of continued delinquent behavior, stimulate goal setting, review the strengths of the juvenile and family, and explain what resources are available for helping to achieve a positive pro-social future for the juvenile.
Victim Offender Mediation	The offender and the victim meet face-to-face with a trained, neutral mediator. The purpose is to discuss the effects of the crime and to determine what can be done to make amends to the victim in the community.

During the six-year period of 2003 to 2008, 71 percent of the juveniles who started the evidence-based program, Functional Family Therapy (FFT), completed it. For the Aggression Replacement Training program (ART), 77 percent of the juveniles who started the program completed it. The statistics are similar for the Multi-Systemic Therapy and Coordination of Services programs, though the number of juvenile participants in these programs was much smaller.

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Summary of Bill:

The Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration is required to establish a pilot program in two locations which shall provide that a person who is a parent of a juvenile, legal guardian, or other person in a similar role shall receive an incentive for consenting to and participating in good faith in a program recommended by the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) as appropriate for the juvenile. The incentive may include transportation support, child care costs, or a small monetary incentive to defray costs of participation in treatment. The incentive is intended as motivation for participation and program performance.

The DSHS in consultation with the University of Washington, School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Division of Public Behavioral Health and Justice (University of Washington) and the evidence-based program model developers shall determine the structure, amount, and disbursement of incentives.

Pilot Program Development.

The DSHS shall, after consulting with the University of Washington, select and contract with two counties to serve as pilot sites. To be eligible, a county must have imposed the sales and use tax authorized by RCW 82.14.460. The monies collected pursuant to this statutory authority may only be used for the operation or delivery of new or expanded chemical dependency or mental health treatment programs and services and for the operation or delivery of new or expanded therapeutic court programs and services. Thirteen counties have, to date, authorized this sales and use tax. The pilot programs should be located in an urban county and a rural county, and they should be operational by March 1, 2010.

The DSHS, in consultation with the University of Washington, shall determine financial guidelines for participation in the pilot program and guidelines for administration of the pilot program. It shall contract with the University of Washington to provide support and assistance in all phases of the pilot program, including initiating, implementing, training providers, providing quality assurance, and monitoring implementation.

The pilot programs shall be limited to evidence-based programs identified in the October 2006 report prepared by the WSIPP: "Evidence-Based Public Policy Options to Reduce Future Prison Construction, Criminal Justice Costs and Crime Rates."

Evaluation and Reporting.

The DSHS, in cooperation with the University of Washington, shall evaluate the results of the pilot programs, including whether there is any increase in juvenile or family participation in the evidence-based programs, increase in successful completion of services by the juvenile and his or her family, and any reduction in recidivism for a juvenile participating in the pilot program.

The DSHS and the University of Washington shall provide a preliminary report to the Governor and the Legislature on the results of the pilot program by December 1, 2011, and a final report by December 1, 2013.

The bill contains a null and void clause. This act expires on June 30, 2014.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony:

(In support) Sometimes the only difficulties that we have in getting juveniles involved in evidence-based programming is trying to engage the parents. If parents are not willing to engage, the juvenile's case is dismissed from the program. The Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration will work with the pilot courts to determine the criteria for eligibility for families. We think we can excite parents. If we can re-bind families in the common effort of making a juvenile's life better, what better thing can we have to reduce future public expenditure and create really enthusiastic, exciting contributors to our society, rather than someone who is always worrying about what they are going to lose next.

(Opposed) None.