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Tomblin confident truancy reduction will keep more kids out of juvenile justice system

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin received this wooden podium made by these juvenile cadets from the Honey Rubenstein facility before Thursday's task force announcement.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin received this wooden podium made by these juvenile cadets from the Honey Rubenstein facility before Thursday’s task force announcement.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin says the path to keeping more juveniles out of trouble is keeping them in school. The recommendations from the West Virginia Intergovernmental Task Force on Juvenile Justice released Thursday focus on reducing truancy.

Tomblin said kids who aren’t in school tend to get into other trouble and land in the juvenile justice system. He said the state can help change that.

“By using more truant officers, using intervention in the communities,” Tomblin said Thursday on MetroNews Talkline. “When you start to see those young people who are going astray and missing a lot of school–trying to find out what’s going on, what’s going on in the home.”

According to the report, 40 percent of all juveniles in court in 2012 were there because of truancy and many ended up being housed in juvenile facilities.

“So many of them are just truants and if we could get them before they get into the court system we’d not only be saving millions of dollars but hopefully getting these kids back on the right track before they get too far out on the edge,” Gov. Tomblin said.

Tomblin said some county circuit judges have done a good job addressing the truancy problem but it needs to be a statewide effort.

“They (judges) need to know what services are available so they could get the help in the community and get some kind of guidance before they end up putting the juvenile in one of our secure facilities,” Tomblin said.

Tomblin believes money saved by keeping more low-status offenders out of juvenile facilities can be funneled into community programs to help kids before they get into big trouble.

“We could redirect that money back into the communities for the community-based services that we feel will prevent those students from ever having to get into the system,” the governor said.

The governor used Thursday’s news conference to receive podium made by a group of juveniles, cadets, from the Honey Rubenstein Juvenile Center in Tucker County.





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