Ramsey County, Minnesota
Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI)
Creating Better Outcomes for Children and Community in Ramsey County
25 West 7th Street | Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102
Telephone: 651-266-5307 | AskJDAI@co.ramsey.mn.us
www.ramseyjdai.com

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JDAI Benefits and Success

Benefits and Success Across the county, the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative continues to produce many positive benefits. Jurisdictions that have implemented JDAI have seen success as experienced by the following:

Keeping Communities Safe

Providing different community options for low risk non-violent offending youth:

Ensures space is available for high risk youth
Eliminates low risk youth experiencing detention culture which studies show encourages more delinquency
Reduces violent crime

JDAI sites show that youth violent crime arrests decline significantly over time as appropriate, more effective responses, to youth behavior are deployed.

Helping Youth Succeed

When low risk youth are able to remain in their community, they are more likely to:

Remain in school, which means they are more likely to graduate from high school
Complete service work or restitution
Develop relationships with positive role models and mentors from their communities
Age out of delinquent behavior to become productive adults

Saving Dollars

Secure detention is very expensive with little opportunity for rehabilitation while the youth is waiting to appear for court. Community-based alternatives are typically a third of the cost and as effective as secure detention.

Model sites such as Cook County, IL (Chicago) and Multnomah County, OR (Portland) have saved $24 million by eliminating the need for a new detention facility and more than $2.6 million per year because of the closing of a 16-bed detention facility, respectively. Both sites have developed community-based alternatives to detention for youth who do not require secure detention.

More Information

Objectives

Eliminate the inappropriate or unnecessary use of secure detention
Minimize re-arrest and failure-to-appear rates pending adjudication
Ensure appropriate conditions of confinement in secure facilities
Redirect public finances to sustain successful reforms, and
Reduce racial and ethnic disparities

Improved the Ways We Work

"JDAI has raised the level of communication and helped us improve the ways we work with kids. We have committed stakeholders throughout the area of juvenile criminal justice moving the entire system to use proven practices to help our kids and protect our communities."

– Frank Hosch
Former Deputy Director for Juvenile Services, Ramsey County Community Corrections