New Hampshire's 3-year Plan - Delinquency Prevention

The State of New Hampshire Division of Children Youth and Families Juvenile Justice Services proposes to manage the core requirements of the Juvenile Justice Reform Act and Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act and to utilize data and community feedback though its recommendations of the Juvenile Justice Reform Commission for initiating the State’s 3-year plan of delinquency prevention efforts on a statewide level. New Hampshire is implementing a statewide juvenile justice transformation supported by the Anne Casey Foundation. The purpose is to support youth development and growth through a system that assesses needs and strengths prior to court involvement with the goal of diverting youth from the system and meeting the restorative and rehabilitative needs of youth that do enter the system. Activities include providing pre-court legal consultation to youth having contact with law enforcement; sustainability of the voluntary needs assessment process; providing incentives based supervision and support to youth on probation and parole; supporting interventions to divert youth from the court system with restorative practices; enhancing the knowledge of youths statewide of the laws and appropriate interactions with law enforcement; and increase community awareness that ethnic and racial disparities exist. Expected outcomes include a decrease of youthful offenders entering the juvenile justice court system which will lead to less youth being removed from their homes and entering the deeper end of the juvenile justice system. The service area is the entire state of New Hampshire. New Hampshire’s at risk youth and families in need are the expected beneficiaries.