King County Juvenile Court Warrant Prevention Program Evaluation
In September of 2012, King County Juvenile Court Services partnered with YMCA’s Alive Free program to implement a Warrant Prevention Program (WPP). The WPP leverages relationships between community established networks of outreach case workers and court involved youth, with the aim of reducing the number of failure-to- appear warrants (FTA) issued for such youth during arraignment and case setting hearings. Receiving regular updates regarding new cases from King County Juvenile Court, the WPP coordinator assigns cases to YMCA case workers based on youths’ risk of failing to appear for scheduled hearings. YMCA case workers continue with youth as their case is processed through the juvenile justice system, reconciling barriers to court appearances and connecting them with relevant services along the way. Two years after WPP’s implementation, King County Juvenile Court commissioned a program evaluation by the University of Washington’s Division of Public Behavioral Health & Justice Policy (PBHJP). PBHJP’s evaluation assesses youths’ general risk of having a warrant issued against them based upon gender, race, and geographic location of residence, in addition to an assessment of program effectiveness.