All youth released from Department of Juvenile Justice commitment facilities are assigned to aftercare. In aftercare, youth are returned to the community, usually in the home county, to receive supervision and services. The primary purpose of aftercare is to reduce recidivism.

In the past year, the Department has opened over 1,000 new commitment beds. This report, prepared in anticipation of the increased need for aftercare, identifies issues and provides suggestions to the Department for administering aftercare services. The major issues the report addresses are:

• To determine how many aftercare slots are needed, the Department needs to evaluate demand on a county-by-county basis and assess the correlation between length of stay and recidivism.
• Youth in most rural counties receive fewer aftercare services.
• Youth who do not abide by aftercare program rules are not usually returned to residential commitment, although a brief return may be a cost-effective deterrent.
• The Department needs to identify which aftercare components work best to reduce recidivism. Currently, program evaluation is limited because there is not enough information about participants, services, and costs to interpret program outcomes and identify successful program features.