Here’s to Amanda Kingsley, the cartoonist whose cartoon character in last week’s Leader made the comment “Juvenile detention is a growth industry.” I know that she was drawing a common conclusion – that without the roller rink and the bowling alley, kids get in trouble and get locked up. There is a small gem of truth in that assumption, but I would ask Amanda and Leader readers not to panic yet.

There are many factors at play as our children make their way through early adolescence and teen years. There are areas of influence that can strengthen their ability to avoid risky behaviors that could result in breaking the law, running away, using alcohol or drugs, and performing poorly in school. Services for families with babies and early learning programs create a strong positive base for families. In later years, in addition to the importance of family functioning, three of these vital areas of influence are use of their free time, how they feel about and perform in school, and how connected they feel to community.

We are at a critical juncture in prioritizing services – public, private and nonprofit. For Jefferson County, juvenile detention is not a growth industry. In fact, the number of youths we saw in our juvenile justice system 10 years ago was at an all-time high. The bowling alley was still open. Over the past 10 years, juvenile offenses have decreased by more than 36 percent, and detention bed days have also decreased by 37 percent without the aid of the roller rink, but with the assistance of programs such as functional family therapy, nurse and family partnership, aggression replacement training, county recreation, 4-H, YMCA, church youth groups, local substance-abuse-treatment providers, mental health counselors, after-school and day-care programs, and local schools.

Jefferson County has no standard detention facility.  Yet standard detention is sometimes necessary as the most restrictive response in a system that must forever balance accountability, public safety, safety of youths and rehabilitation. Recent budget reductions have resulted in an even greater effort to keep detention numbers down. Now more than ever, an extra effort is spent keeping kids out of detention or in our Proctor Home, where they are closer to home and services.

Communities with lots of roller rinks, bowling alleys and much more still have bored children looking for something to do. Although it might be an easy answer, we know that we can’t expect a rink or an alley to keep our children safe, healthy and out of trouble. We also know there are significant issues involving youth that we must continue to address. At this time of priority discussions about what stays and what goes, I look forward to working with other youth-serving agencies to get even smarter about how we combine efforts, share resources, make youths and families a priority, and keep the consumers of the detention industry at an all-time low.

Perhaps that is the point Amanda was trying to make.