Idaho juvenile corrections seeks $300,000 to replace ARPA funding, requests radios and IT upgrades amid rising mental-health needs

The Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Feb. 18 that it is requesting $300,000 in ongoing general-fund support to replace one-time ARPA funding that previously covered a portion of residential substance use disorder treatment costs, and a $380,000 one-time purchase from the Juvenile Corrections Endowment Income Fund to upgrade staff radios with “man down” functionality.

The request matters because agency officials said treatment costs have more than doubled since 2021, and the department is seeing increased mental-health acuity among youth in custody.

The department’s budget analyst, Noah Peterson, told the committee the daily cost of residential treatment rose from about $198 per day in 2021 to $399 per day after August 2021 and the average length of stay rose from 31 days to 67 days. Peterson said those changes drove total program costs from about $1,260,000 in fiscal year 2021 to roughly $2,700,000 in fiscal year 2024. “The Department of Health and Welfare was able to provide short term funding to offset some of the increased cost…by utilizing ARPA funds, but now…