Hennepin County Juvenile Offender System Rehabilitation
MN – According to a 2008 report, some young offenders could be placed with local services for better and more cost-effective treatment. Complete story in the Star Tribune. 
A few years ago, when Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Stenglein questioned the growing expense of residential treatment programs for young offenders, a juvenile court judge told him that it was the judge’s job to place young people for treatment and the county’s job to pay the bill.
Stenglein’s recounting of that story Thursday at a Hennepin County Board briefing drew snorts of disbelief from community corrections officials and the presiding judge of Hennepin County juvenile court.
After years of frustration over the cost and success rate of out-of-home placement programs for juvenile offenders, county officials believe they are finally moving toward a more cost-effective system that they hope also will put more troubled youth back on the straight and narrow.
New out-of-home placement programs for young offenders should be in place this fall after a year of planning by juvenile judges, corrections officials and other experts, county board members were told. The board approved the new direction last fall after years of exasperation with a system that to commissioners seemed bloated, with out-of-control costs.
According to a 2008 report, out-of-home correctional placements for juveniles cost the county $31 million a year, with $12.5 million of that spent on the Hennepin County Home School in Minnetonka. An average of $62,753 was spent on each of the 494 youths who were placed in 68 residential programs inside and outside of Minnesota in 2007. About one-fifth of those young people were not classified as high-risk and could have received cheaper community-based services, the report said.
The new plan will not necessarily save money, but county officials hope it will achieve better results.
Complete story in the Star Tribune.
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