Keeping communities safe is a priority for Dakota County, and the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative will help succeed in that goal.
By providing law enforcement different community options, low-risk and non-violent youth offenders are kept out of secure detention. This ensures space is available for more serious youth offenders and keeps low-risk offenders away from high-risk offenders.
Research by the Justice Policy Institute indicates that bringing high and low-risk youth offenders together creates a culture that deepens misbehavior because low-risk offenders will actually increase their involvement in delinquent activities – this happens at detention centers. Approximately, two-thirds of youth detained before the Initiative are non-violent offenders and pose no risk to public safety.
Communities involved in the Initiative have found that keeping low-risk youth offenders away from the detention center culture has resulted in lower re-offense rates. Multnomah County, Oregon, which includes the City of Portland, experienced a 45 percent fall in the youth violent arrest rate between 1994 and 2000.