Audit calls for more oversight of Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils

RALEIGH - Publicly financed programs aimed at preventing juvenile crime should be more closely monitored and should have better rules for preventing conflicts of interest, according to a state audit released yesterday.

Officials overseeing the programs also should use more uniform standards to evaluate whether the programs are effective, said the audit, which examined the workings of local boards known as Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils. These councils are set up in each county, and they are a major component of North Carolina's effort to prevent juvenile crime and rehabilitate juvenile offenders.

Each council, within its own county, directs state and local money to nonprofit groups and other programs aimed at minors.

The state spends more than $23 million a year on such programs, and county governments chip in additional money.

The audit uncovered potential conflicts of interest because sometimes, members of the councils are also the heads of nonprofit organizations receiving money from the councils.

The audit found 17 such potential conflicts, including ones in Davidson, Stokes and Surry counties.

"These conflicting duties create the potential for abuse," the audit said.

State auditors, however, found no actual instances of abuse.

Auditors also said that local programs need better oversight from state monitors, and that the state should use standardized criteria to compare and evaluate similar types of programs.

George Sweat, the state's top official for juvenile-justice issues and a former chief of the Winston-Salem Police Department, said he agrees with a lot of the audit, although with caveats. For instance, Sweat said he agrees that the state needs to more closely monitor local prevention programs, and in fact an earlier report by his department highlighted that need. Sweat said that the state legislature should authorize more money for monitoring.

He also agreed that the councils should take more steps to prevent conflicts of interest, but he disagreed with auditors' recommendation that anyone who runs a local program that receives money from a council should be prohibited from serving on the council.

Sweat said that, in some cases, those people are on the council because they are experts in juvenile issues.

"You're going to run across some jurisdictions where the most knowledgeable people with regard to juvenile needs may be someone who's involved in a program," he said.

"We don't want to eliminate some of the most knowledgeable people of juvenile-justice issues," said Sweat, who is the secretary of the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

He was also hesitant about using standard criteria across the state to evaluate programs. Particular programs might have particular goals, he said. And even if two programs have the same goals, it may not be fair to use the same standards for a 10-year-old program in one part of the state and a newer program in another part of the state.

Sweat said that the Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils have helped reduce the state's juvenile- crime rate and have helped save tax money by keeping young people out of jail.

"It keeps them out of delinquency, he said. "Many of those programs are preventative in nature. We don't see kids but one time."

The chairwoman of the Forsyth County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council is Pansy Glanton, who is an assistant district attorney in the county. Glanton could not be reached yesterday to comment on the audit.

The audit was conducted by the office of State Auditor Les Merritt, whose office is charged with evaluating all aspects of state government.