About JDAI/DMC

About JDAI

JDAI is a nationally recognized, evidence-based juvenile justice system reform project launched in 1992 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The focus is on detention for several reasons:

  • National crowding crisis in secure detention facilities;
  • Negative impact of secure detention on youth;
  • Lack of public safety results from the use of secure detention;
  • High cost of secure detention; and
  • Valuable entryway to overall juvenile justice system change.

Essentially, the purpose of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) is to demonstrate that jurisdictions can safely reduce reliance on secure detention.

For more information:
http://www.aecf.org/MajorInitiatives/
JuvenileDetentionAlternativesInitiative.aspx

About DMC

Disproportionate Minority Confinement (DMC) is the overrepresentation of any minority group or groups in secure custody, compared to their proportion of the general population. Reducing DMC is a core requirement of the JJDP Act Formula Grants Program. Under this program, Minnesota must make efforts to reduce the proportion of youth detained or confined in secure facilities who are members of minority groups if it exceeds their proportion in the general population. States that fail to meet this requirement lose 25 percent of their annual formula grant allocation.

Since DMC is a complex problem that crosses many social systems, Ramsey County's JDAI/DMC initiative engages community members as well as agency representatives working in tandem to identify and eliminate inequities where they occur in our juvenile justice system. In 2006, the W. Haywood Burns Institute conducted an evaluation of the internal and external factors contributing to DMC in Ramsey County and assessed our ability to address it. The recommendations of that report, the PDF Readiness Assessment Consultation, guide our work.

For more information:
http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/dmc/about/index.html
http://www.burnsinstitute.org/