The Miami-Dade Juvenile Services Department (JSD), formerly known as the Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC), is the largest facility of its kind in the state of Florida.   Since it first opened in October 1997, the facility has served as a centralized processing, referral, and evaluation center for all juveniles arrested in Miami-Dade County serving over 120,000 youth and their families.  The Department allows representatives from law enforcement, social services, education and mental health to work in a cohesive partnership in order to provide a complete array of services needed in the initial phases of the child’s involvement with the criminal justice system.

 

The JSD operates with an active partnership of juvenile justice stakeholders.  JSD partners include various local stakeholders: Juvenile Court judges, Clerk of Courts, State Attorney’s Office, Department of Juvenile Justice, Miami Dade Public Schools, County departments, law enforcement, Public Defender’s Office, and a multitude of private providers and community based organizations.  The Department also works with colleges and universities as well as state and federal agencies.

 

The Juvenile Assessment Center’s portion of the JSD is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to accept arrested juveniles.  The JAC is charged with managing the entire process for arrested juveniles for Miami-Dade County.  This includes providing the infrastructure for all juvenile justice stakeholders to comply with their respective mandates/requirements and to perform their respective duties; providing daily coordination for juvenile justice system compliance between stakeholders; processing 100% of the arrested juvenile population brought to the JAC according to law; utilizing JAC data systems to organize the arrest population, and applying processing to strategically reduce the number of children processed at the JAC.  The JAC must process arrested juveniles in strict compliance with requirements mandated by Florida State Statues.

                                                                                                                                                                             

The JSD concept allows representatives from law enforcement and social services to work together under one roof to provide a complete range of services and programs at the initial stages of the juvenile’s involvement with the Juvenile Justice System.  This has proven to be an efficient model of processing that has allowed the State of Florida and local communities to achieve system and fiscal efficiencies.  The delivery mechanism used to provide JSD/JAC services and programs is achieved through four major components: The Intake and Screening Component, the Diversion Services Continuum, the Prevention Continuum, and the Clinical Unit.  The Intake and Screening component is responsible for the intake and triaging of arrested youth delivered to the JAC for screening and intake processing; the diversion services continuum offers graduated interventions based on the psychosocial assessment, the age of the youth, the alleged offense and its impact on the victim or community, and the youth’s history within the system; the prevention continuum was developed to identify and address the issues of the at-risk population to prevent their entrance into the juvenile justice system through the use of empirically based screening and assessment tools designed and administered in an appropriate manner; and the clinical unit is managed by License and Masters level clinicians who provide clinical reviews for assessments conducted by staff.  This unit assists in providing appropriate interventions for children in crisis and provides clinical assistance when dealing with youth exhibiting severe mental health and substance abuse issues.

 

The Miami-Dade Juvenile Services Department (JSD) proposed a demonstration project and received funding from the United States Congress that partnered researchers and operational staff in the reform of an active, functioning system.  The principal researchers on this project are Dr. Richard Dembo and Dr. Maxine Thurston.  As result of this project, we have been able to achieve world-wide recognition.

 

Some of JSD’s accomplishments include:

• Highlighted in President’s National Drug Control Strategy, March 2004, as one of only 5 local programs.  While the JAC is an arrest processing facility, it was recognized for “Intervening Early”.
• Received an unprecedented five congressional earmarks.
• The JAC was selected to participate in The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) 25 Cities Project to pilot new and innovative methods at addressing substance abuse through a partnership with Informed Families to provide parent training along with the Post Arrest Diversion Program to prevent re-arrest.
• The JAC participates in the Federal Gang Reduction Program to reduce and prevent gang membership in the Haitian community in partnership with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice and the North Miami Beach Police Department. 
• The JAC will implement a new research based initiative to continue to impact recidivism by developing a new protocol to serve young offenders (12 years old and under) which emerged as a local, state, and national issue.  To address this serious issue, a special pilot effort will begin applying research –proven assessment and case management protocols in partnership with the JAC, the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice and US DOJ Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention.  This pilot is intended to develop a model for serving this population that will be implemented statewide and nationally;
• The JAC has documented the increasing number of girls arrested each year and in recognition of the special needs of girls, a Girls Advisory Group of local stakeholders has been formed and meets regularly to identify data trends with girls’ arrest trends, appropriate services for girls and funding opportunities.  Specialized training for system stakeholders and providers was conducted by a national expert, funded by the JAC’s NDP to raise the skill level of staff in the entire community and how they serve female offenders. The JAC will use its National Demonstration Project to evaluate the local Girls Advocacy Program, the only program serving detained girls in the State of Florida and thereby establish a model for replication statewide.

JSD Information Pamphlet

 

JAC Agency Partners

Miami-Dade Office of the Mayor  

Miami-Dade Office of County Manager 

Miami-Dade Enterprise Technology Services Department

Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Miami-Dade Police Department 

City of Miami Police Department

Miami-Dade Administrative Office of Courts Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Juvenile Division
Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts 

Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, Eleventh Judicial Circuit
Miami-Dade Department of Corrections 

Florida Department of Juvenile Justice
Florida Department of Children and Families
Dade County Association of Chiefs of Police