Juvenile justice officials seek beds and expansion of GPS pilot as OJJ budget grows

House Fiscal presented the Office of Juvenile Justice FY27 executive recommendation at $226,600,000, with State General Fund accounting for roughly 90.3 percent of the total. The request includes a $27.9 million net increase driven primarily by operating a 56‑bed leased facility in Vernon Parish and adding staff for that center.

Undersecretary Jason Starnes and Deputy Secretary Courtney Myers told the committee the agency is contending with a continuing shortage of secure beds and an average of 70–80 youth pending placement in local detention centers. To ease pressure, the agency plans to bring an existing Jetson property back into service with 36 beds (targeting June for completion of security modifications) and to construct a new 72‑bed facility that could take about 2–2.5 years to build.

Myers described a New Orleans GPS monitoring pilot: the city used remaining federal Rescue Plan Act funds to underwrite salary and benefit costs, and OJJ reimbursed work‑force dollars while it staffed the unit. The pilot monitors pre‑adjudicated youth 24/7; OJJ said it could be replicable if the pilot demonstrates benefits.

Committee members asked for detail on prevention and alternative‑to‑detention spending. Starnes said about $5.1 million in transfers from criminal justice reinvestment funds are available, and that a portion of those dollars funds contracts for alternatives to detention and early intervention programs. OJJ committed to providing a list of current contracts and the agency’s monitoring data so lawmakers can assess program performance against outcomes such as placement avoidance and recidivism.

Members also sought and were promised more precise figures on the number of juveniles on GPS monitoring and the daily cost of monitoring compared with post‑adjudication supervision.