Crime Causation and Diversion Paper
CJA 374
3/23/14

Crime Causation and Diversion Paper
The rise of Juvenile delinquency and juvenile related crimes have been a top topic in the U.S, leaving the question of why is it happening? What can be done to change such behavior? What can we do to help the children of today become better adults for tomorrow? All of these question have answers, answers in which you will discover within this paper. You will learn about the programs that Nevada offers for juvenile offenders as well as their parents. You will be introduced to two programs that help deter children from committing delinquent acts, the goals they set forth for future generation and the key participants in each program introduced to you. By the end of the paper, you will have a better understand on what can be done for juveniles in Nevada and how it is a beginning step to helping juveniles around the U.S.

Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative
Diversion programs are an attempt to divert or change the course of a juvenile’s involvement in the justice system. It sole purpose is to help divert juveniles from entering the system, placing them outside of detention centers that could pose to be possibly more harm than good. Diversion programs also help the juvenile justice system by helping to ease the work load and help keep the population at juvenile detention center at a manageable limit. Since 2004, Wash County, Nevada Justice Services has teamed up with Annie E. Casey Foundation to replicate the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative. According to Annie E. Casey Foundation (2014), “The Casey Foundation launched Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) in 1992 to reverse the troubling trends in juvenile justice and demonstrate that juvenile detention and corrections populations could be substantially and safely reduced. Today, JDAI is part of the Foundation's Juvenile Justice Strategy Group, working with public agencies to implement innovative and effective reforms that improve the outcomes of children and youth who experience, or are at risk of entering, juvenile justice systems.” JDAI goals are to successful help juveniles from being placed in detention facilities when it is deemed unnecessary, helping with overcrowding and the juvenile from being subjected to harsh environments when there are other more acceptable options to help the juvenile reform. JDAI helps minimize re-arrest rates and the failure to appear as well, helping the juvenile courts from additional hassle, while also keeping the juvenile responsible for their actions and corporation with the justice system. The strategies of JDAI are “include collaboration, use of accurate data, use of objective admissions criteria, new or enhanced alternatives to detention, case processing reforms, implementing new practices for responding to probation violations, reducing racial disparities, and improving conditions of confinement.” ("Washoe County Nevada", n.d). JDAI helps keep the juveniles who have committed nonviolent crimes from being entered into a detention center, with the hope that the program can find alternative choices for the juvenile to reform themselves of their wrong doings. JDAI allows the juvenile to be free from being subjected to mental and physical damage while in a detention center, with the hopes that the juveniles will learn to become a law abiding citizen.
Detention Centers
Nevada has many different types of detention centers, from camp to full security. All provide a safe, secure environment for the juveniles entered into their care. Medical, physical, Education and Mental care is all provided to the inmates of these facilities, as well as AA, NA and religious classes to help meet the needs of the inmates various needs and to help address any dependency issues that lead to the inmates delinquent behavior. Caliente Youth Center (CYC), is located in Eastern Nevada, has 7 housing units for both boys and girls, with a capacity for 140, serving juveniles 12-18. It is a staff secured facility, meaning that it does have guards, but it is considered a camp detention center. Like all detention centers in Nevada, it does have the struggles of having a full staff to meet all of the needs of the juveniles in its care, though it has been able to maintain a relationship with the school district to have a teacher on staff all year to help keep the juveniles at their correct grade levels. CYC, goal is to help rehabilitate the juveniles in its care by providing the simple basics of life, school, chores and offers classes such as job study and home economics, so the juveniles may enter into a full life upon their release. Though detention centers are not a deterrent and are the next step after the crime has been committed, they do offer programs for release juveniles to help readapt them to the outside world. Which can be a deterrent for further delinquent behavior
Which is the best
Detention center do provide a stable environment for juveniles, providing them the accessibility to school, work study and any mental health care that they need. I do believe that they would not be the best choice. JDAI is what has helped redevelop the juvenile world, helping to keep kids out of detention centers when needed and provide alternative methods of retribution for the juvenile to participate in. JDAI “focuses on the juvenile detention because youth are often unnecessarily or inappropriately detained at great expense, with long-lasting negative consequences for both public safety and youth development.” (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2014). JDAI provides more options to help kids before they are entered into the court system, allowing them a second chance and giving them the tool they need to turn themselves around and become abiding citizens of their community
Conclusion
You have not been introduced to JDAI and Detention Center. Both looking for the same end result, just at different phases of the justice system. JDAI looks into catching them before they are subjected to the courts and detention centers, whereas the detention center is where the juveniles will be sent to be reformed of their delinquent behavior. Both positive aspects in the ever changing world for juveniles, both with their ups and downs of the system as well. Juvenile delinquency is an ever changing aspect of life, on in which we are discovering new answers to all the time.

References
Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2014). Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative. Retrieved from http://www.aecf.org/MajorInitiatives/JuvenileDetentionAlternativesInitiative/AboutJDAI.aspx
Washoe County Nevada. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.washoecounty.us/juvenilesvs/jdai.html