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1996 SESSION

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960118836
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 70 Offered January 18, 1996 Requesting the Department of Youth and Family Services to develop a risk assessment instrument for juvenile felony offenders. ----------
Patrons-- Baker, Bloxom, Cantor, Darner, Deeds, Jackson, Jones, J.C., Melvin, Moran and Rhodes; Senators: Houck, Miller, Y.B. and Reasor
---------- Referred to Committee on Rules ----------

WHEREAS, state and local secure juvenile facilities have suffered from extreme overcrowding during the last four years; and

WHEREAS, the overcrowding of secure facilities may have the unintended impact of restricting a judge's use of secure confinement options for some offenders; and

WHEREAS, a risk assessment instrument is a significant aid to identifying an offender's risk level and subsequent dispositional sentence; and

WHEREAS, when used on a voluntary basis as an information tool for judges, risk assessment instruments have the capacity to ensure valid, reliable and equal outcomes for those to whom they are applied; and

WHEREAS, the use of a risk assessment instrument for juvenile felony cases should be viewed as complementary to the ability to weigh public safety as well as rehabilitative concerns in forming dispositional sentences; and

WHEREAS, both the Juvenile Justice System Reform Task Force established pursuant to HJR 604, 1995, and the Governor's Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform have identified the development of a risk assessment instrument as a necessary enhancement to the juvenile justice system; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the Department of Youth and Family Services, in collaboration with the Virginia Sentencing Commission and the Department of Criminal Justice Services, and with input from circuit and juvenile and domestic relations district court judges, shall develop a risk assessment instrument for juvenile and domestic relations district courts to use as guidance in determining appropriate dispositions for juvenile felony offenders.