Michigan can reduce its $2-billion state prison budget partly by diverting juvenile offenders to treatment.
When Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder decided to present his ambitious plan for justice reform, he chose Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, which makes it a practice to hire former convicts, as his setting. He also chose to have representatives from the Livingston County juvenile court and a Multisystemic Therapy (MST) supervisor from Highfields, Inc. in attendance. Snyder’s staff learned of the court’s success in implementing programs that help kids, programs that save money.
John Evans, Livingston’s circuit and family court administrator, cited MST as one reason for the county’s success. By overhauling how it was decided which youth would be best served by which program, and introducing new services, more than $1.6 million was saved over four years.
He said that using programs like MST reduced how many adolescents were in residential facilities by more than 8,000 from 2011 to 2015.
“We can count dollars all day and quite frankly, if we wanted to save money, we could stop doing [programs],” Evans said. “We want to save money, but we want to do good by the kids and that number of kids not being locked up is still getting treatment . . . in their home, in their schools, and they are getting better.”
Programs like MST can help juvenile offenders and state budget
One MST success story mentioned by court staff concerned a 15-year-old boy. He had been in and out of juvenile court for domestic violence, assault, battery, and on probation for several years. He said he had “explosive episodes” in which he was “verbally and physically aggressive.” Added to the mix, his academic performance was spotty at best.
The boy’s family was not expecting much when it started working with MST. But adhering to the therapy’s Nine Principles and treatment model, a dramatic turnaround was achieved. There was no more physical aggression and verbal lashing out decreased. Two years after completing therapy, the boy was no longer a familiar face in court. In fact, there had been zero charges brought against him.
In laying out his reform plan, Gov. Snyder called for getting youthful offenders treatment rather than prison time. It sounds like he'll be looking to the models used in Livingston County to help guide his approach, saving young lives and taxpayer dollars while keeping communities safe. The governor calls this, 'smart justice'.
To learn more about the cost-savings of MST. Download this white paper.
