Indiana ranked fourth in juvenile incarcerations, according to report

MUNSTER, Ind. – Just three states jail a higher percentage of their kids than Indiana, an advocacy group said in a report on the well-being of children.\nIndiana’s juvenile incarceration rate of 415.4 per 100,000 juveniles ages 10 and older in 2006 trailed only Wyoming (606.1), South Dakota (564.4) and Florida (451.8), the nonprofit, nonpartisan Every Child Matters Education Fund reported recently in “Geography Matters: Child Well-Being in the States.”\nVermont, at 72.4 jailed juveniles per 100,000, had the lowest rate.\nMichael Petit, the group’s president, said Indiana’s high incarceration rate stemmed at least partially from the state’s poor ranking in other areas examined in the report, such as child welfare expenditures, infant mortality and births to teen mothers.\nPorter County Circuit Judge Mary Harper said her county had 565 admissions to its detention center in 2007 and sent seven juveniles to the Indiana Department of Correction.\nThe Department of Correction commitments were far less than the number sent by comparable counties such as Tippecanoe with 24 and Vanderburgh with 34, she said. This was accomplished by a series of local programs aimed at addressing the needs of young offenders, she said.\nDan Rau, who heads Porter County’s Juvenile Justice Services program, said the young offenders are evaluated in eight potential areas of risk, including substance abuse, family life, education level, recreational activities, peer behavior and personality type.\nLake County has a similar effort in place, in addition to a program to bring young people back early from the Department of Correction, which seems to be successfully reducing repeat offenses, Lake County Juvenile Court Judge Mary Beth Bonaventura said.\nShe said she believes lockups should be the last resort for juvenile offenders since it does the least to accomplish the goal of rehabilitation.\nLake County sent 102 juveniles to the Department of Correction last year and 83 the year before, Bonaventura said.\nThe state announced plans to take over the entire cost of juveniles sent to the Department of Correction as part of the recently-approved property tax reform bill, but Harper and Bonaventura said the change will not lessen the commitment to keeping young people out of custody.\n“It’s not going to alter the way I do business one bit,” Bonaventura said.\nPetit said intervention with young offenders works best the earlier it’s applied.\n“If you treat kids well early on, they’ll act well later on,” he said.