County Probation Consortium Partnering for Youth Realignment

In the face of the closure of the states juvenile justice facilities (DJJ), the Consortium provided an opportunity for counties to share ideas about addressing the needs of youth who were returning from DJJ or who would have otherwise gone to DJJ so that each county did not have to reinvent the wheel when deciding on their plan for the closure of DJJ. For example, the Consortium developed a draft MOU template that counties could consider using when they did not have the necessary resources within their own county and needed to contract with another countys secure youth treatment facility. The Consortium contracted with the states Office of Youth and Community Restoration to assist counties with identifying and addressing the needs of youth returning from DJJ. For example, the Consortium was able to solicit common questions or challenges that counties were facing during this uncertain period and work with directly with DJJ and OYCR to develop strategies to address those concerns. This would have been nearly impossible, and significantly more costly for the counties and state agencies, if each county had been required to coordinate and problem-solve individually with DJJ and OYCR.Additionally, the Consortium was able to identify shared strategies that counties could use for the transition processesstrategies that had to be developed because there were so many unanswered questions created by the states decision to close its juvenile justice facilities.In June 2023, the Board of Directors adopted a resolution authorizing dissolution of the corporation in the next fiscal year.