Pubdate: Sun, 09 Mar 2003
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Copyright: 2003 Lexington Herald-Leader
Contact:  http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240
Author: Fox Butterfield, New York Times News Service

JUVENILE JUSTICE PROGRAMS FACE CUTS

Bush's Budget Eliminates $250 Million In Block Grants; Advocates Object

PORTLAND, Ore. - At 15, Karl had dropped out of school, had a small-time 
drug habit and was hanging out on the streets with friends who were 
supporting themselves by shoplifting.

When Karl was picked up by the police for possession of marijuana, he would 
normally have been taken to the Multnomah County Juvenile Detention Center, 
the juvenile jail here.

But two years ago, with a $200,000 federal grant, the county started a 
program under which Karl and teen-agers like him who would have been 
charged with minor offenses were instead taken to a privately run center 
where they received a clinical assessment, drug treatment and the chance to 
remake their lives.

Karl, whose last name is not public because he is a juvenile, has become 
drug-free, officials say, and he is about to earn his high school 
equivalency degree. In fact, since the program began, the number of young 
people being taken to the regular juvenile jail has fallen 73 percent, said 
Joanne Fuller, the director of the county Department of Community Justice.

But the Portland program, known as New Avenues for Youth, is in danger of 
being eliminated because of $250 million in proposed cuts in juvenile 
justice programs in President Bush's budget for next year, along with $400 
million in cuts in after-school programs for children at risk of falling 
into delinquency.

In his State of the Union address, Bush said he would "apply the compassion 
of America to the deepest problems of America" by introducing a 
$150-million-a-year program to provide mentors for children with parents in 
prison and disadvantaged middle school students. But when the president's 
budget was made public, it also called for eliminating $250 million in 
juvenile justice programs under what are known as juvenile accountability 
incentive block grants.

The president's budget also proposed reducing after-school programs by $400 
million. This would mean ending after-school programs for 500,000 students, 
according to Department of Education figures.

Scott McClellan, a White House spokesman, said a reason for the cuts in the 
after-school and juvenile justice programs was that new evaluations ordered 
by the Office of Management and Budget found either that they were 
ineffective or that there was no way to measure their effectiveness.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who was one of the authors of the juvenile 
block grant program, said he planned to fight to try to keep it intact. "I 
don't think we should reduce funding for these programs," Sessions said. 
"We should be increasing funding."

With young people in poor and high-crime neighborhoods, "You can't save 
them all," Sessions said. "We are working at the margins." So if 10 percent 
can be saved by one program and 10 percent by another, he added, "we are 
making progress."
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