The number of youth offenders in the state’s custody have been steadily declining for years, but a new legislative audit released Thursday found that Juvenile Justice Services spending has not mirrored the decreasing population in its care.
Despite a 35 percent decrease of youths served since 2011, JJS operating expenses has increased — its appropriated funding rising more than $5 million from 2012 to 2017.
In an 81-page audit, the state’s legislative auditor expressed concern that the juvenile system has added new and costly internal programming without documenting a cost-benefit analysis or considering whether similar services could contracted to private providers at a cheaper rate.