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 is no longer able to do so,” Peterson said.

Department director Ashley Dowell told the committee the $300,000 ongoing request would “make up the difference from what was previously covered by Health and Welfare.” Dowell also described clinical challenges inside the system: “we are seeing an increase in criminality as well…and an increase in suicidal ideation and self harming behavior,” she said, and emphasized the need to ensure the department’s facilities and community partners can meet youth mental-health needs.

Peterson summarized other FY2026 enhancement requests the department submitted to the governor: a $380,000 one-time radio-system upgrade to add man-down location alerts and to program radios across the three state juvenile correction centers (Lewiston, Nampa and St. Anthony); $145,100 from dedicated funds for replacement items; a net-zero personnel-to-operating shift of $675,100 and a reduction of 7 FTP to consolidate IT positions with the Office of Information Technology Services; and $232,500 for IT hardware recommended by OITS.

Committee members pressed agency staff for operational detail. Representative Tanner asked for population and trend data; Peterson said he did not have the figures at the lectern but would provide them to the committee. Dowell said the agency’s in-custody census reached an all-time low of 137 in May 2024 and stood at 176 at the time of the hearing, a roughly 19% increase from that low. Representative Handy and others asked for data on youth crisis centers and diversion: Dowell said she could supply whatever available outcome data but offered that crisis centers have diverted children under age 10 and older youth from detention on an anecdotal basis.

Committee members also asked about placement criteria and the growing length of residential stays. Dowell and the co-chair referenced placement decisions made by community treatment providers and noted the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) criteria are used to determine placement and length of stay. “Those treatment providers are really doing best practice when they make those determinations,” Dowell said, noting the providers are community-operated rather than department-run.

The committee did not hold a vote on the department’s requests during the hearing. Staff said many of the enhancement items were recommended by the governor and that additional line-item detail (facility-level breakouts and the full legislative budget book) is available in the committee’s SharePoint folder.

Looking ahead, Dowell told legislators the department is engaged with county partners and the Idaho Behavioral Health Council diversion subcommittee on whether to propose a legislative minimum age for detention (IDJC serves youth ages 10–21; counties operate detention programs and have different local practices). She also reported the department adopted human-trafficking screening tools after a legislative requirement and implemented the screening in county and facility settings as of January 2025.

The committee asked the Legislative Budget Office and agency staff to follow up with more granular data about daily census trends, crisis-center diversion metrics and the drivers of increased residential treatment costs.

The department’s slide materials and the legislative budget book include a full itemized breakout of replacement and IT requests and are available to committee members for follow-up.