 National Association of Counties * Washington, D.C. Vol. 31, No. 12 * June 21, 1999 Previous story | Table of Contents | Next story Juvenile justice bill funding formula better for counties By Donald Murray
By a vote of 287 to 139, the U.S. House of Representatives, in the late evening hours of June 17, easily approved new juvenile justice legislation authorizing $1.5 billion in block grant funding to local and state governments over a three-year period. The legislation now goes to conference with the Senate. The major feature of the legislation, the Consequences for Juvenile Offenders Act of 1999 (H.R. 1501), is an annual $500 million juvenile accountability incentive block grant that provides counties with flexible funding to create a system of intermediate interventions and/or sanctioning at the local level. The bill also features a new funding formula that more accurately reflects the division of governmental responsibility for juvenile justice at the local level than the current formula in the Senate bill. Several state associations of counties have reported to NACo that the current juvenile justice funding formula is seriously inadequate. A comprehensive study conducted by the Ohio Association of Counties found that Ohio counties were receiving only 34 percent of the funds, although the 12 purpose areas outlined in the program were overwhelmingly county functions. Changing the formula was one of the major priorities of this month’s earlier Large Urban County Caucus (LUCC) fly-in and lobbying effort. H.R. 1501 automatically allows the state to keep 25 percent off the top; the Senate bill (S. 254) allows the state to keep 30 percent. The formula divides the monies that are directed to counties and cities by assigning 75 percent of the funds according to the relative share of law enforcement expenditures (as defined to include legal, courts and corrections only), while 25 percent is based on the relative share of Part I crime. The Senate formula is two-thirds expenditures, one-third Part I crime and without the House definition. Originally, NACo advocated the use of juvenile justice expenditure data but the Justice Department maintained that many counties could not produce juvenile justice expenditure data at this time. NACo has recently asked Shay Bilchik, administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), to conduct research into the long term feasibility of capturing juvenile justice expenditures including procedures for capturing county social service expenditures that are juvenile justice and delinquency prevention related. NACo supports the "core requirements" of the JJDPA, including the removal of juveniles from adult jails and lock-ups and periodic studies that seek to analyze the possible impact of discrimination on minority confinement. H.R. 1150, which was merged with H.R. 1501, includes these protections. NACo strongly supports the Hatch, Biden amendment adopted by the Senate (S. 254) which dedicates 25 percent of the JAIBG to primary prevention. At a LUCC meeting with Sen. Hatch earlier this month, the Hatch predicted that the Hatch-Biden amendment would prevail in conference. Counties are urged to support the amendment in conference. |