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Could delinquency be pegged for budget cuts, too?
Feb 21, 2011 7:00 am
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Brookwood Secure Juvenile Facility, in Claverack, could be pegged for closure according to a Register-Star story, from which this photo was also taken."]
[/caption]How will impending budget cuts affect juvenile delinquent programs? Will it be as bad for remediation efforts as things are looking for early education, our culture, and even domestic violence programs? Jamie Larson writes in the Register-Star that even though no specific center closings have been announced, the Brookwood Secure Juvenile Facility on Spook Rock Road in Claverack is one of the facilities potentially in the governor’s crosshairs. And even though Cuomo has stated his intentions to give communities negatively impacted by the loss of area jobs at a facility millions of dollars in economic development grants, his budget office has tasked the New York state Office of Children and Family Services, the office in charge of such facilities, with creating a report on just how much can be cut and how. A spokesperson for the budget office said the current goal is to reduce the state’s overall juvenile detention capacity from 1,209 to around 833. Furthermore, OCFS Commissioner Gladys Carrion said that closing under-utilized facilities is consistent with the current trend of declining populations at OCFS facilities at a Joint Legislative Fiscal Committees budget hearing on Feb. 16. The commissioner voiced support for another part of Cuomo’s plan for OCFS in which $70 to $73 million will be reinvested into community-based alternatives to detention and youths in the care of OCFS. Let's all see how THIS shakes out over the coming year.
[/caption]How will impending budget cuts affect juvenile delinquent programs? Will it be as bad for remediation efforts as things are looking for early education, our culture, and even domestic violence programs? Jamie Larson writes in the Register-Star that even though no specific center closings have been announced, the Brookwood Secure Juvenile Facility on Spook Rock Road in Claverack is one of the facilities potentially in the governor’s crosshairs. And even though Cuomo has stated his intentions to give communities negatively impacted by the loss of area jobs at a facility millions of dollars in economic development grants, his budget office has tasked the New York state Office of Children and Family Services, the office in charge of such facilities, with creating a report on just how much can be cut and how. A spokesperson for the budget office said the current goal is to reduce the state’s overall juvenile detention capacity from 1,209 to around 833. Furthermore, OCFS Commissioner Gladys Carrion said that closing under-utilized facilities is consistent with the current trend of declining populations at OCFS facilities at a Joint Legislative Fiscal Committees budget hearing on Feb. 16. The commissioner voiced support for another part of Cuomo’s plan for OCFS in which $70 to $73 million will be reinvested into community-based alternatives to detention and youths in the care of OCFS. Let's all see how THIS shakes out over the coming year.