The Juvenile Services Department (JSD) is currently operating a National Demonstration Project with the U.S. Department of Justice and over thirty national researchers. The purpose of the demonstration project is to utilize proven research methods to reform an active, functioning juvenile justice system. The project is working with a variety of juvenile offenders in order to strategically apply interventions that will ultimately reduce the juvenile crime rate in a major urban area, historically plagued with a high juvenile crime rate. The JSD also began a partnership in 2003 with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).  This will allow the ONDCP to utilize findings of the demonstration project in order to facilitate their goals' achievement of reducing substance abuse usage among adolescents in the United States.

When the National Demonstration Project began, it set out to accomplish the objectives and planning needed to take into account the broad categories of arrested juveniles. Add to this mix diverse ages (ranging from 8 to 18), gender differences, ethnic composition and all the different combination of factors that these imply and it becomes obvious that the project had to begin in the broadest, most comprehensive way. Four initial components were identified that started to address multiple issues across the scope of the juvenile arrest population that contained both minor and serious offenders.

• Post-Arrest Diversion: This is an alternative arrest-processing program that allows the JAC to keep first-time-arrested juveniles for minor offenses from entering the traditional system. It also provides a format to apply the best research practices at the earliest point of entry, identify risk factors and apply a personalized diversion program that addresses the issues of the child, including the family, and not the offense.  Florida State Statute language was passed to allow juveniles successfully completing the program a mechanism to eliminate their arrest record.
  
  
• Screening and Assessment: This component looks at the actual instruments, application, training of staff, and dissemination of information.
  
  
• Research and Data Collection: Since opening, the Miami-Dade JAC has processed over 130,000 juvenile arrests. Data will be analyzed to determine trends in the population in order to drive funding and services.
  
  
• Specialized Program Models: Three groups of juveniles were identified in Miami-Dade County to be the first to study for the development of model programs;
  • Girls, which represented over 22% of arrests; 
  • Haitian Children, which represented 8% in 2002 of our arrests and have problems which are indicative of a recent immigrant population; and 
  • the Younger Siblings of Serious Habitual Offenders, a group that shares the risk factors of their older siblings and are at the highest risk of entering the juvenile justice system.