Costs estimated for Florida’s JDAP Bays program come up to $9.33 per youth per day. The JDAP
program has an average length of stay of 122 days (around 4 months) per youth. This means that a
juvenile participating in a JDAP program for the average amount of time would cost around $1,138.26
(See Appendix A). Since the JDAP program is currently serving misdemeanor offenders primarily, it is
possible that the non-violent felony offenders could need more services or more time (if the youth is at a
higher risk of recidivating, for instance). With this in mind, the study multiplied the average JDAP cost
per juvenile by one and a half to ensure that costs are realistically estimated for the targeted population.
The resulting figure was an estimated $1,707.39 for JDAP completion per non-violent felony offender.
The median length of stay in a commitment facility for a felony property offense is 94 days and
for felony drug charges is 85 days (not including post-adjudication, pre-placement detention, which
averaged an additional 15 days). With these lengths of stay, felony property offenders are estimated to
cost the state of Florida $14,269.20 per youth and felony drug offenders are estimated to cost $12,903.00
per youth.
If one juvenile was diverted to the JDAP program as an alternative to serving time in
commitment for a property felony, the state would save $12,561.81, even if the youth participated in
JDAP for one and a half times the average length of stay. For felony drug offenses, state monies saved
would total $11,195.61 from diverting one juvenile from commitment to a JDAP program for one and a
half times the average length of stay. If the state of Florida chose to divert only half of juveniles
sentenced to commitment for a drug felony, the state would save an average of $313,477.08 per year. If
Florida chose to divert half of juveniles sent to commitment for a non-violent property felony, the state
would save an average of $7,430,310.62 of taxpayer dollars per year. Diversion sanctions for non-violent
felonies can result in significantly less youth housed in residential facilities who are at a lower risk of
reoffending, as well as, an overall decline in recidivism rates for the state of Florida.
Further Study
This study used valid, reliable, and easily replicable data from the Florida Comprehensive
Accountability Report (CAR) across fiscal year 2016-17 and was accessed from Florida’s SAO website
(Hatcher, 2018). This researcher did not have the time and resources in order to control for risk factors
and demographics within each community or Florida’s twenty circuits. The most prominent weakness of
the study is that most diversion programs in the state of Florida do not service felony juvenile offenders,
so the recidivism rates are [in most cases] only reflective of misdemeanor juvenile offenders.
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