Juvenile Crime Prevention Council

Mission Statement

The Lincoln County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council envisions a community where its youth are well educated, healthy, law abiding, contributing members of society who respect the rights of others and themselves.

About the JCPC

In 1998, as a result of much hard work and planning, the Juvenile Justice Reform Act was passed. The Act mandated that the Juvenile Service Division of the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Division of Youth Services and Division of Human Services be merged to form a single office that would be directly administrated by the Governor. The "new" office of Juvenile Justice is more responsive and comprehensive in policy and planning.

The intent of the General Assembly was to prevent juveniles who are at risk from becoming delinquent. The primary intent of this part is to develop community-based alternatives to training schools and to provide community-based delinquency and substance abuse prevention strategies and programs. Also, it was the intent of the General Assembly to provide non-instructional alternatives that will protect the community and the juveniles.

Additionally, the Juvenile Justice Reform Act required county commissioners to appoint a new Juvenile Crime Prevention Council to enhance and replace all existing Youth Services Advisory Councils (CBA Boards).

Governor Hunt's goal was to have a single portal of entry of all funding streams flowing from the state to the local level.

Those programs and services shall be planned and organized at the community level and developed in partnership with the State. Those planning efforts shall include appropriate representation from local government, local public and private agencies serving juveniles and their families, local business leaders, citizens with an interest in youth problems, youth representative, and others as may be appropriate in a community. The planning bodies at the local level shall be the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council.

As a prerequisite for a county receiving funding for juvenile court services and delinquency prevention programs, the Board of County Commissioners was required to appoint a Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. The local JCPC was appointed by the Board in 1999.