Kentucky Juvenile Justice Reform Evaluation: Assessment of Community-Based Services for Justice-Involved Youth, 2011-2019

In 2014, Kentucky undertook a reform of the state's juvenile justice system through Senate Bill 200 (SB 200). The SB 200 legislation sought to improve systems and youth outcomes by expanding access to treatment and supervision in the community, focusing the most intensive resources on serious offenders, and enhancing data collection and oversight mechanisms to ensure that the policies work. Westat, in partnership with the American Probation and Parole Association, worked with Kentucky agencies to evaluate key reforms under SB 200. Evaluation consisted of three components. First, an implementation evaluation documented barriers and successes to implementation, with a particular focus on the Family Accountability, Intervention and Response (FAIR) teams and the impacts of system-wide sociopolitical context, allocation of resources, agency leadership and organizational culture on the reform. Second, using geographic information systems (GIS), researchers assessed the availability of community-based services for youth referred to the juvenile justice system in Kentucky and also identified gaps in service areas and potential disparities in access to services. Third, researchers conducted an outcome evaluation to assess the effect of SB 200 on youth dispositional outcomes and racial and ethnic disparities among referred, diverted, and adjudicated youth.