Tennessee Ranks Better Than Nation in Juvenile Arrests

According to a new study, Tennessee is ranked better than the national average in the percentage of youth who become arrested.

Every year, KIDS COUNT puts out a data book ranking each state in terms of “child well-being.” Its focus this year is juvenile justice reform.

Nationally, 125 kids in every 100,000 are arrested. In Tennessee, its only 91 out of 100,000.

Steve Hornsby heads the Department of Children’s Services Juvenile Justice Division.

He says there’s a need for better, more scientific ways of identifying potential delinquents – and that it’s important to consider the effects of home life on those kids.

Hornsby also says that the over-representation of minorities in the system needs to be recognized.

“I want to encourage all of the stakeholders, local schools, local law enforcement, the local court systems, as well as other state and county based agencies to begin looking at how we can effectively begin keeping those youths that are, the minority youth that are engaged in the system, out of the system to begin with, and then secondly, how we can keep them from penetrating even further into the system.”

The Juvenile Justice Division will be evaluating their existing programs over the next 6 months, and will report to the General Assembly in January.

Overall, Tennessee is ranked 42nd in KIDS COUNT, compared to 43rd last year.