FINAL BILL REPORT

ESB 5429

C 461 L 19

Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description: Including referred and diverted youth in establishing community juvenile accountability program guidelines.

Sponsors: Senators Nguyen, Das, Saldaña, Hasegawa, Salomon, Darneille, Wilson, C., Zeiger, Randall and Kuderer.

Senate Committee on Human Services, Reentry & Rehabilitation

House Committee on Human Services & Early Learning

House Committee on Appropriations

Background: Juvenile Rehabilitation (JR) administers the Community Juvenile Accountability Program (CJAP), which provides funding to local governments to implement programs designed to reduce youth violence and juvenile crime. JR must distribute CJAP funds according to a grant formula it maintains in consultation with the Washington Association of Juvenile Court Administrators. JR is a division of the Department of Social and Health Services which will transfer to the Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) on July 1, 2019. CJAP was established pursuant to the Community Juvenile Accountability Act in 1997.

Local governments may apply to receive CJAP funds to benefit programs in their communities. Proposals to receive CJAP funding must be developed with the input of local law and justice councils and describe how local community groups or members will be involved in the implementation of the program. The funding must be used to support programs that reduce reliance on secure confinement as the sole means of holding juvenile offenders accountable. Programs must:

• target diverted and adjudicated juvenile offenders;

• include effectiveness assessment methods;

• provide structured community supervision, using natural guardians such as employers, relatives, teachers, clergy, and community mentors to the extent possible;

• promote good work ethic values, educations, and competencies necessary to succeed;

• maximize services that reduce risk factors associated with the commission of juvenile offenses;

• maximize reintegration of the juvenile into the community;

• maximize the juvenile's opportunity to make full restitution to victims and amends to the community;

• support and encourage court discretion in implementing community-based intervention strategies;

• be compatible with research into best practices;

• be outcome-based and include outcome measurement and an evaluation; and

• recognize the diversity of local needs.

Summary: DCYF must allow proposals for CJAP funding to support programs that target youth who are referred to the program by law enforcement, instead of being diverted or charged with a juvenile offense. The proposals must require the law enforcement officer who refers the youth to have probable cause to believe the youth has committed a crime which would have been diverted or charged if not for the program referral.

DCYF must provide reports on December 1, 2019, and December 1, 2020, that include a county-by-county description of the youth served by CJAP programs, including the number of youth who were referred by law enforcement prior to being diverted or charged with a juvenile offense. The December 1, 2019, report must include a description of how funding is used for referred youth and the impact of that use on overall CJAP funding.

The block grant oversight committee must implement a stop loss policy when allocating CJAP funds that limits the loss in funding for any juvenile court from one year to the next. The block grant oversight committee must establish a minimum base level of funding for juvenile courts with lower numbers of at-risk youth aged ten through seventeen. DCYF must report to the Legislature by December 1, 2019, about the use of funding. The block grant oversight committee must be established by JR for the purpose of assessing the ongoing implementation of the block grant funding formula, and include equal representation from JR and juvenile courts, with cochairs selected from each group.

Votes on Final Passage: