Wise Spending Leads to Effective Solutions

“Wise Spending Leads to Effective Solutions” by Judge George Timberlake

To read this article on the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange website, click here.

A recent conversation with a group of friends reminded me that discussions about money are complicated and can move easily from discussion to heated argument.

I said that more public funds should be dedicated to research about positive outcomes for kids in the juvenile justice system and that the research would lead to development of additional evidence-based programs and practices.

One friend countered that dollars should be dedicated to prevention to keep kids out of the system. Another suggested that lots of kids come from intergenerational criminal families and will continue offending no matter what the services – that spending public funds on those kids just removed funding for services to kids who don’t get into trouble.