OJJDP Second Chance Grant

As many as 100,000 youth younger than 18 years old are released from juvenile correctional facilities every year. These young people often return to their communities with complex needs, such as physical and behavioral health issues and barriers to education and employment. The FY 2015 Second Chance Act Smart on Juvenile Justice: Community Supervision Program will provide planning grants to state and local government agencies and federally recognized Native American/Alaskan Native tribes to support their efforts to develop and finalize a comprehensive juvenile community supervision reform strategic plan that will implement evidence-based supervision strategies to reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for juveniles under community supervision.

The Connecticut Office of Policy and Management (COPM) will address five critical problem areas within the juvenile justice system in their state: (1) comprehensive treatment of the needs of youth (i.e. substance abuse, mental health, truancy); (2) serious gaps in youth services; (3) data interoperability; (4) disproportionate minority contact; and (5) overreliance on confinement. Statewide reform efforts have not yet focused sufficiently on reentry of juvenile offenders from confined settings to their communities, especially high-risk youth. The strategic planning efforts will initially focus on the state’s highest need and risk youth in confinement or released to community supervision from the four largest urban areas. During the planning period, COPM will: launch an inclusive planning process; develop implementation strategies for community supervision and reintegration reform; and advance data quality and interoperability. COPM has partnered with the Tow Youth Justice Institute, Central Connecticut State University, the Office of Policy and Management, state juvenile justice and child service agencies, nonprofit and advocacy organizations, families, youth, and other academic and research organizations. CA/NCF