Tune in to Kids in Georgia

Challenges Facing Georgia’s Children Today:

Incarceration Compared to other indicators of child well being, Georgia's current rank of 23rd in the nation for children in state detention would seem encouraging.

Yet the Georgia General Assembly concluded in 2005 that the state’s juvenile justice system was in need of reform when it passed a resolution to overhaul the Juvenile Code, which had become outdated and inadequate for adjudicating cases involving young people.

Criteria defining children in this statistic include those 18 or younger, were assigned a bed in a residential facility at the end of the day on the 4th Wednesday in October, charged with an offense or court-adjudicated for an offense and are in residential placement because of that offense.

Law-violating behaviors among youth can be influenced by a number of factors.  For example, juveniles living with both biological parents had lower lifetime prevalence of law-violating behaviors. Children reporting friends or family members in gangs were three times more likely to also report vandalism, major theft, assault, carrying a handgun and selling drugs.  Those not in school and not working had significantly greater risk of problem behaviors including marijuana/hard drug use, running away, gang membership, major theft or serious assault, carrying handgun and selling drugs.

Voices is studying key influencers and predictors of juvenile justice system involvement to determine possible strategies for intervention such as:

• Over representation of racial minority youth
• Lack of diversion alternatives
• Age of first detention
• Poverty
• Recidivism
• Status offenses