Assessing the Impact of a Graduated Response Approach for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System

The University of Maryland, Baltimore, will evaluate the Accountability and Incentives Management(AIM) system, which was implemented by the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services(DJS) in July 2015 to promote supervision compliance and completion, reduce rates of supervision violations and recidivism, prevent detention and committed placements resulting from supervision violations, decrease lengths of stay under supervision and in placement, and address racial disproportionality in detention and committed placements. The study will entail: a process evaluation of AIM's implementation; an assessment of youth outcomes, with separate analyses of each outcome by race and supervision type; and a cost savings analysis. Administrative data collected by DJS and by Maryland's adult criminal justice system will serve as the primary sources of data.

The goal of this program is to assess the effectiveness and/or cost efficiency of juvenile justice system reforms. For the purposes of this solicitation, OJJDP defines the juvenile justice system broadly to include systems involving law enforcement, courts, community corrections, and corrections. Reform may constitute systemic policy or practice change(s) within a locality and/or state that impacts one or more segments of the juvenile justice system. OJJDP is interested in change(s) resulting from administrative or legislative action to impact youth and system-level outcomes. Outcomes of interest include, but are not limited to, measures of positive youth development (e.g., work, education, health), reoffending, public safety, and juvenile justice system costs and reinvestment.

CA/NCF