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DYS to expand prevention services
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Posted on May 31 2000
The Division of Youth Services has unveiled plans to expand its prevention services in fresh efforts to curb an apparent rise in juvenile delinquency cases within the community.
But this, according to Juvenile Corrections Unit Supervisor Sylvio Ada, would only be possible if and when the youth services can secure the necessary full time equivalents.
“As it stands, probation officers doing intervention are the same persons who do regular juvenile probation tasks,” said Mr. Ada.
He added there is a need for the youth services to separate these two different roles and assign officers who would be able to focus on a specialized task.
“This is what we need to improve our services,” he said.
The need for additional FTEs is ever pressing especially as the youth services earlier revealed plans to deploy juvenile probation officers to school campuses to monitor students under its probation program.
Though the plan is to send officers only a few times during a week, Mr. Ada said DYS needs to add three more to its five-man intervention team.
Meanwhile, three DYS staff recently came back from a juvenile justice training programs in San Diego, California, bringing with them new knowledge on juvenile management skills.
The intensive four-day workshop was presented by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the National Juvenile Court Services Association, the oldest and largest national judicial membership organization since 1937.
Juvenile Corrections/Probation staff members Jennifer Tanaka, Windsor Peter, and Felix Limes represented the youth services in last month’s conference tackling dispositional alternatives and juvenile probation, management development institute, and mental health issues in juvenile justice.
The participants said the topics where helpful in expanding their probation and intervention skills.
“The training exposed us to a wide variety of programs and services that the national juvenile probation office offers,” said Ms. Tanaka.
The training was dedicated to improving the standards and effectiveness of the nation’s juvenile and family court system. (MM)
