City Limits, B. Pierson, July 17, 2006

Study shows two programs for juvenile lawbreakers reduce city's payments to state. 

Two programs designed to rehabilitate juvenile lawbreakers are saving the city money and may be serving children better too, according to a report released last week by New York City’s Independent Budget Office (IBO).  

The programs, which work with juvenile lawbreakers at home through their families and communities, are partly responsible for saving the city $18 million from 2003 to 2005.  They are aimed at not only saving money, but also providing better results and lowering recidivism rates, said Patricia Brennan, Deputy Commissioner for Juvenile Operations for New York's Department of Probation.  Her department's new Enhanced Supervision Program (ESP) allows juvenile lawbreakers to stay at home under close supervision by a probation officer, who works with their schools, families, and communities.

The other program is Esperanza, run by the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice through a contract with the Department of Probation, which is more intensive than ESP in some ways though the underlying principles are the same.  Esperanza employs therapists who regularly work with the youths and their families in addition to working with officers from the Department of Probation.  "A young person doesn't exist in a vacuum," Esperanza Director Jenny Kronenfeld.  "We want to address family situation, situations in the community."

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