DJC administers the Community Youth and Family Aids program, otherwise known as "Youth Aids." The purpose of Youth Aids is to decentralize fiscal decision-making in the juvenile justice system to the county level, and diminish the fiscal incentives for institutional placement of delinquent youth. Before Youth Aids was implemented in 1980-81, state juvenile correctional services were funded directly from the state budget, and thus appeared "free" to county agencies and courts. In contrast, services to treat delinquent and at-risk youth and their families in a community setting were financed by local agencies. The result was overcrowding of state secured facilities and unnecessary secure placement of many youth who could have been safely treated in their own homes if supportive services were available. In the 1980-81 creation of Youth Aids, the state's funding for secured correctional services, at that time $26 million, was turned over to the 72 counties by means of a three-factor allocation formula (see below).

Each county’s Youth Aids amount is the sum of the initial 1980-81 formula allocation, county maintenance of effort, additional funds given by the Legislature to compensate for state rate increases, and decreases resulting from the creation of state-funded programs such as Violent Offender and Serious Juvenile Offender. In contrast to adult correctional services, funded directly by the state budget, DJC bills the counties for most state correctional services provided to juveniles. Counties have the choice to use any remaining Youth Aids to fund local delinquency-related services including out-of-home placement (residential care center, group home, foster home) and community-based supervision and programs (for example, restitution, day treatment, and counseling). Counties also use other funding sources, such as Community Aids and property tax revenue, to support delinquency-related services.

In 1994, Wisconsin's Youth Aids program was extensively discussed by the Juvenile Justice Study Committee as part of its overall look at how to make the juvenile justice system more effective. The committee recommended that the formula used to allocate funds to counties be examined to assure that funds are appropriately targeting counties with the greatest need for delinquency-related services.

The 1995-97 state budget bill required that a new Youth Aids allocation formula be developed for consideration during the 1997-99 budget session. The goal of the revision was to better target funds to counties with the greatest needs for delinquency-related services, and reflect reduced county costs from the implementation of the state-funded Serious Juvenile Offender program. The result was the creation of a three-factor formula to distribute Youth Aids increases to counties. The three factors chosen by the Legislature were those used in the original distribution of the Youth Aids base in 1980-81:

• Youth population in each county - representing the early intervention needs

• Serious juvenile arrests in each county - representing the demands on local juvenile justice systems

• Placements of youth in juvenile correctional institutions by each county - representing ongoing need for funding institutional services

Each county's proportionate share of the statewide total of each factor is applied to approximately one-third of the available Youth Aids increase to determine the county's allocation related to that factor. Thus, if $500,000 is available for increases related to arrests of juveniles for serious offenses, and Kenosha County had 3% of the state's total juvenile arrests for serious offenses, Kenosha would receive 3% of $500,000 or $15,000 related to the arrest factor.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau paper on Youth Aids prepared for the 2003 Legislative session is a source of further information on Youth Aids.

In CY 2002, the Youth Aids allocation to counties is distributed according to formulas specific to each of these categories:

The Department of Corrections has historically distributed a total of $3,750,000 per fiscal year to counties on the basis of a statutory formula.  According to s. 301.263 of the Wisconsin Statutes, Community Intervention Program (CIP) funds are to be used for early intervention services for first-time offenders and for intensive community-based intervention services for seriously chronic offenders.  A statutory formula allocates funds based on each county’s proportion of the statewide total of juvenile arrests for Part I violent offenses, placements of juveniles in state secured correctional facilities, and juvenile arrests for Part I offenses. 

Community Intervention Program funding is reserved for community-based programs for two target groups--early intervention services for first-time offenders and intensive community-based services for serious chronic offenders. By providing a stable base of funding for such programs since its inception in January 1995, CIP has gained widespread popularity. Counties are required to develop programs with measurable outcomes and to evaluate their success annually in meeting their objectives. This provides counties flexibility in using creativity to develop innovative programs as long as the basic guidelines are met.

Through the passage of the biennial budget through 2009 Act 28, CIP funding was reduced by one percent, or $37,500. The total amount of CIP funding available for counties in SFY10 and SFY11will be $3,712,500.

You may learn more about the outcomes of CIP-funded programs from SFY 2008 and funding allocations for 2009 by following the respective links:

Outcomes 2008

CIP Allocations 2009