Youthful Sex Offender Treatment Program

The Second Chance Act, signed into law on April 9, 2008, provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of people who are released from prison and jail and returning to communities, including resources to address the myriad needs of these offenders to achieve a successful return to their communities. As a complement to the Second Chance Act programs, the FY 2015 Smart Supervision Program (SSP) seeks to improve probation and parole success rates, which would in turn improve public safety, reduce admissions to prisons and jails, and save taxpayer dollars. The goals of this program are to develop and test innovative strategies to implement evidence-based probation and parole approaches that improve supervision success rates, thereby increasing community safety, and reduce violent and other crime by effectively addressing individuals’ risk and needs and reducing recidivism.

The Eighth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services will use grant funds towards the Youthful Sex Offender Treatment Program (YSOTP). YSOTP is a community corrections-based program designed to prevent the incarceration of youthful sex offenders residing in rural southeast Iowa, by providing an age-appropriate, seamless continuum of intensive treatment and long-term supervision services based on evidence-based principles and practices. The project goals are to increase the number of clients successfully completing sex offender treatment by reducing the number of technical field rule violations, program revocations, new offenses (of a sexual nature, or otherwise), and ultimately the recidivism rate. At full capacity, YSOTP will serve a minimum 25 to 30 clients annually ages 18-25.

CA/NCF