State Cuts Funding for Youth Adolescent Opportunity Program

The state will soon cut funding for a program that works to give youth across the state a second chance.
Harrison County Youth Court officials received word that TANF funding will no longer be used toward juvenile services for youth adjudicated by the courts.
As a result, all adolescent opportunity programs across the state will shut down at the end of this month. The AOP is a three step initiative that aims to help troubled youth with a criminal history learn new behaviors and coping skills.
At any given time, there are at least 20 children from the Harrison County Youth Court involved in the program. Judge Margaret Alfonso with Harrison County Youth Court said, “It was considered the last service that we had before commitment to Oakley Development Center. As we know, incarceration is expensive. Why are we doing this? Why are we willing to spend money incarcerating juveniles and not spend money for probationary services?”
Judge Alfonso tells News 25 the AOP played a huge role in reducing incarceration at the Oakley Development Center. The program has been around for the past 20 years.