PRESS RELEASE January 28, 2002

TALLAHASSEE -- A new study from Florida TaxWatch provides a reminder of the potential long-term costs of cuts to crucial youth and family services.

The study provides an assessment of prevention services provided by the Florida Network of Youth and Family Services, and concludes that the Network is constructively assisting troubled youth and their families and that the services they provide are cost-effective and result in significant savings for the State.

The Network, a not-for-profit statewide association consisting of 24 agencies at 34 sites statewide, provides juvenile crime prevention program services under contract with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). According to the TaxWatch study, the documented costs borne by the Network and funded by the state to deliver these services are considerably less than more intensive governmental intervention like arrests and adjudications into the DJJ system.

"There are clearly long-term financial benefits to providing prevention and early intervention services to children at-risk of delinquency," said Dominic M. Calabro, President of Florida TaxWatch. "The Department of Juvenile Justice credits the Network with a 90 percent average success rate. The best time to help troubled youth build a better future is before they build up a pattern of crime."

The DJJ estimates a one percent overall reduction in juvenile delinquency saves the state more than $45 million. Based on the Network's 90 percent success rate in keeping program participants out of the DJJ system, it is reasonable to conclude the Network's efforts alone realized that one percent drop in delinquency. If the Network redirects just three out of 20 of the youth they serve, they pay for themselves and achieve $10-$15 million in savings to the state for delinquency-related costs.

The Network serves more than 22,000 individual children - providing over 30,000 screenings and admissions. According to the TaxWatch study, the Florida Network intervenes at a critical point to divert children from the Juvenile Justice System at an average cost of $1,650 per child served -- a $5,650 per child savings.