Washington County reports drop in juvenile court petitions after adopting YASI risk assessment

Washington County Human Services staff presented youth justice intake data showing a 9% overall increase in referrals between 2020 and 2024, driven largely by a 37% rise in school-based referrals, while petitions to juvenile court have fallen markedly after the county adopted the Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument (YASI).

Beth, a youth justice staff member, told the committee that referrals cover youths aged 11 to 16 alleged to have committed crimes under the Wisconsin criminal code and also include truancy reports. She said "on average each year ... 90 to 95% of that total referral is for delinquency" and that school referrals increased while referrals coming from home and community locations decreased.

Beth explained the department's intake dispositions: cases can be closed, opened on a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) for informal supervision, or petitioned to juvenile court. She said the office began implementing the YASI screening in 2022 and that, since then, deferred prosecution agreements decreased by 46% over the last two years and petitions to court decreased by 57% from 2022 to 2024. Beth said the YASI tool scores a youth's reoffending risk as low, moderate, or high and that incorporating the assessment into intake decision making reduced referrals that led to formal court involvement.

Supervisors asked how youth who are not opened for county services are served; Beth said intake workers typically make community referrals during a roughly 40-day intake window and work closely with the behavioral health unit to refer youths to programs such as Comprehensive Community Services (CCS). Committee members asked about the role of school resource officers and whether they receive training; Beth said there is a monthly Washington County School Law meeting for local law enforcement, victim services, the district attorney's office and school administrators, and that schools and school resource officers receive additional training through the Office of School Safety.

Committee members discussed how social media and changing youth culture factor into referral patterns and whether historical data prior to 2020 could clarify whether 2022 represented a return to pre-pandemic norms or an exceptional spike. Staff said the county used a different tool (COMPASS) before 2020 and that direct comparisons across tools should be made cautiously because the instruments measure different factors. Beth said the change in state oversight from the Department of Corrections to the Department of Children and Families also shifted practice toward treatment-focused, community-based responses rather than punitive placements.