The Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet and the Department of Juvenile Justice are launching a new incentive fund for local programs that supervise youth in communities across the commonwealth.
The incentive fund will award up to $1 million in grants in 2018 to local judicial districts that will create community-based services, treatment programs or alternatives to out-of-home placement.
State Senator Whitney Westerfield says programs that may come out of the fund will help non-serious juvenile offenders develop positive influences.
“Instead of locking them up- which is what we have been doing, at a pretty high clip- let’s get them the kind of attention and help that they need in their community. Around people they know, around people they trust," Westerfield said.
The incentive fund was made possible by money saved through a bill Westerfield sponsored in 2014 intended to improve the juvenile justice system.
