Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Juvenile Justice topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Juvenile services emphasize family-based therapy and community placements; request heating-plant repairs at Youth Correctional Center
Summary
Lisa Bearguard, director of the Division of Juvenile Services, told the Senate appropriations committee that juvenile arrest rates have declined from 1990s peaks but the system still needs family-based therapy and brief residential placements to keep youth safe and close to home.
Lisa Bearguard, director of the Division of Juvenile Services, told the committee the juvenile arrest rate in North Dakota peaked in the mid-1990s and has generally declined, but that the state still needs a mix of community-based services, family therapy and brief residential capacity for some youth.
"The juvenile court act in North Dakota had not been significantly updated since 1969," Bearguard said, and she credited the Juvenile Justice Commission and recent policy work for modernizing responses. Bearguard told the committee the division is emphasizing intensive family therapy and evidence-based in-home approaches to reduce out-of-home placements.
Nut graf: Bearguard said the division is expanding Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) and other community treatments, using Title IV-E flexibility to pay for front-end services rather than only residential placements. The division requested targeted budget items for short-term residential contracts, replacement of an aging heating plant at the Youth Correctional Center and one FTE for security at YCC.
What the division told legislators
- Juvenile trends and capacity: Bearguard provided 30 years of juvenile-arrest data and explained the division—s care-and-custody decision-making. Of roughly 3,905 juvenile referrals in 2023, about 2,000 were diverted from the system, 579 saw a judge, and 114 were committed to the Division of Juvenile Services.
- Family therapy and IV-E changes: Bearguard described BSFT as an intensive, in-home treatment designed to improve family functioning and reduce delinquent behavior. She said federal changes allowing IV-E funds to support preventive and in-home services have been important to keep youth closer to home and out of costly residential placement.
- Contracts for mid-level residential needs: The division asked for funding to stand up short-term community contracts to cover a mid-level bed need created after IV-E changes reduced funding for the older group-home network; the division reported about 15 contracted beds in regional partners (examples cited: Grand Forks detention center, Moorhead Detention Center, Valley Boys Home in Breckenridge).
- Youth Correctional Center needs: Bearguard and plant director Chris Jangula described the YCC central heating plant as more than 100 years old and in structural decline; the division requested funding for heating-plant replacement and extraordinary repairs as part of a broader maintenance request.
Why it matters
Bearguard told the committee that short placements in the Youth Correctional Center average roughly six months and that the agency seeks to limit the duration of confinement when safe and possible because of evidence about harms from long placements. Expanding community and family-based treatments, she said, helps reduce the number of youth needing secure custody while focusing state resources on higher-risk cases.
Ending note
Lawmakers thanked Bearguard for the data-driven briefing. The division asked for continued state support for community contracts and the heating-plant work; the committee asked for detailed cost estimates and for the agency to return with contract and program performance information.
