Three Innovative Court-Involved Reentry Programs

This document spotlights the efforts of three jurisdictions to improve outcomes for juvenile offenders returning to the community after completing a period of court-ordered placement. Two of the three programs featured – the Reentry Initiative in Marion County, Indiana and the West Virginia Division of Juvenile Services Reentry Court Program – have implemented a court-managed approach operating much in the manner of the drug court model, one of several promising approaches supported by the Office of Justice Programs’ Serious and Violent Juvenile Offender Reentry Initiative. A significant innovation at the third site, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, is the use of neighborhood day reporting centers which all returning offenders must attend when not in school. These centers provide a wide range of services on site and serve the critical function of providing a gradual de-escalation of supervision and monitoring between the institutional environment and the relative freedom of the community.

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