NCJ Number
208909
Journal
Pennsylvania Progress Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: October 2003 Pages: 1-10
Date Published
October 2003
Length
10 pages
Annotation
After describing the ways local delinquency services are funded in Pennsylvania, with attention to the system of reimbursement established under Act 148, this bulletin examines the innovative uses one county has made of the system to improve its responses to delinquency.
Abstract
Funding to pay for juvenile justice services in Pennsylvania covers the costs of responding to, caring for, and meeting the needs of court-involved youth, including the costs of sheltering, supervising, counseling, and treating them. Funds may come from private, Federal, State, or county sources. The source used will depend partly on the type of service and the setting in which it is provided; however, the four main funding sources must be tapped in the aforementioned order. Money "belonging" to the individual juvenile must be accessed before funds from the other three sources are used. If Federal funds are available, they must be exhausted before State or local sources may be used. Costs not otherwise covered by private or Federal funding sources may be shared by the State and county, or assumed entirely by the county. After Federal funding sources have been tapped, counties turn to Act 148 funds from the State. Passed in 1976, Act 148 established a large-scale reimbursement scheme for county-purchased child welfare and juvenile justice services. Rates for some services were set high, so that counties would be encouraged to use them and the private sector to deliver them. Rates for other services were set lower in order to discourage their overuse. The funding scheme thus had the effect of encouraging counties to pattern their juvenile services according to State juvenile justice policies. The State focus is on in-home and intake services, as well as community-based placements, while using institutional placement only as a last resort. This bulletin describes how this funding scheme is achieving change in juvenile services in Bucks County, PA.