Michigan Juvenile Justice Realignment Initiative

The FY 2016 Smart on Juvenile Justice: Reducing Out-of-Home Placement program will strengthen and expand the use of community-based alternatives to out-of-home placement and minimize approaches based solely on control and deterrence in favor of individualized treatment and services.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will develop the Michigan Juvenile Justice Realignment Initiative to improve the outcomes of justice-involved youth by providing trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate services in the community, and preventing and reducing the number of youth entering out-of-home placement. The plan will highlight county-based realignment models that are prioritizing community-based programming; identify and leverage multi-system funding to advance these models in large/urban, mid-size, and small/rural counties; delineate the respective roles of the state and counties in sustaining community-based realignment models; and serve as a network and resource hub for sharing and learning from colleagues and experts in the field. The focus is on those jurisdictions that most heavily rely upon out-of-home placement for youth younger than age 18, specifically rural or impoverished areas that lack the resources or opportunities to learn how to implement community-based alternatives to placement.
CA/NCF