Cuyahoga County Reentry Program for Transition Age Youth with Co-Occurring Disorders

The Second Chance Act provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of incarcerated adults and juveniles who are released from prison, jail, and juvenile residential facilities and are returning to their communities. The FY 2013 Second Chance Act Reentry Program for Juveniles with Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders seeks to reduce long-term alcohol and other substance abuse among juveniles in secure confinement facilities and to improve drug treatment and mental health services provided to them during their confinement and through the completion of their court supervision. A secure confinement facility may include a juvenile detention center, juvenile correctional facility, or staff-secure facility. Eligible juveniles must have been confined under juvenile court jurisdiction.

The Ohio Department of Youth Services (DYS), the state-operated juvenile corrections system for felony-level juvenile offenders has collaborated with the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board of Cuyahoga County, Chestnut Health Services, and Recovery Resources, a dually-certified mental health and drug alcohol agency. Together, these entities propose to provide services using the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (A-CRA) with Assertive Continuing Care (ACC) for an estimated 80 transition age youth with co-occurring disorders leaving Ohio's juvenile correctional facilities and returning to Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), Ohio.
The goals of this initiative are as follows: a) reduce the one, two, and three year post-release recidivism rates of juvenile offenders participating in the program from 22.1% to 11.1% (one year), 41.3% to 20.6% (two year), and 50.5% to 25.3% (three year) b) enhance public safety in the community, and c) enhance the capacity of DYS and the project partners to address the needs of transition age juvenile ex-offenders with co-occurring disorders leaving DYS facilities and returning to Cuyahoga County.
The objectives to achieve these goals include the following: a) develop one A-CRA team of clinicians at Recovery Resources to implement a continuum of services, beginning in the facility and transitioning into the community, that will address the needs of transition age youth with co-occurring disorders returning to Cuyahoga County from correctional and treatment facilities, b) use actuarial-based assessment instruments to determine the risks and needs of youthful offenders and to guide the development of 80 individualized reentry plans, and c) improve outcomes for 80 DYS youth by establishing, supporting and strengthening collaborative community approaches serving transition age youth with co-occurring disorders.

CA/NCF