State of New Jersey

Prevention and Early Intervention

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State Incentive Program

The development of the State Incentive Program (SIP) is a key component of the Juvenile Justice Commission's Master Plan to improve New Jersey's juvenile justice system.

In tandem with the existing State/Community Partnership Grant Program, the State Incentive Program supports counties in their program planning and development efforts. It further enhances the county's ability to develop, at the local level, a continuum of effective sanctions and services for juvenile offenders. This desired continuum of options includes both efforts to prevent youth from becoming delinquent and to respond in the most effective way to a wide array of delinquent youth.

These sentencing options provide judges with more choices, thus helping ensure that the disposition best fits the offender and the offense. The 1983 Juvenile Justice Code allows judges to utilize a wide array of dispositions for youth. Despite that ability, available programs of sanctions and services to match that array of dispositions have been slow to develop. One result of this limited availability is that youth are often placed in State facilities when use of local facilities and programs would be more appropriate and effective. It is important to note that, parallel with the implementation of the State Incentive Program, the Commission is substantially increasing its institutional and non-institutional bed capacity with the goals of addressing existing bed shortages and enhancing overall Commission programming.

	Program Development & Prevention Services Office

	The primary responsibility of the Program Development & Prevention Services Office (PD&PS) is to oversee federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) funded programs totaling $3.5 million and to staff the state level JJDP Committee, chaired by Judge B. Thomas Leahy. In addition, the Office is responsible for state level compliance monitoring of the core requirements of the JJDP Act, notably that youthful offenders not have sight or sound contact with adult offenders, that juvenile non-offenders or status offenders (runaways, truants, etc.) not be kept in a secure setting and that delinquent juveniles not be detained in any adult jail or lockup.

	The Office also ensures that the Juvenile Justice Commission develops a plan to address the overrepresentation of minority youth in the juvenile justice system. Currently, the JJC is in the assessment phase of this process.

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