Bernalillo County board discusses allocating funds for juvenile justice programs

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Bernalillo County is figuring out how best to spend its money to keep kids from getting caught up in the juvenile justice system. KRQE News 13 sat in on the first meeting of the year of the board that makes those decisions.

It’s a question they have to figure out each year—what’s the best use of public dollars in the juvenile justice system? It’s the job of the Bernalillo County Juvenile Justice Continuum Board , which held its first meeting Monday.

The group’s ultimate mission is to establish how money appropriated from the state legislature to the Children, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD) in Bernalillo County will be divvied up into community services and programs to help kids who come in contact with the juvenile justice system.

“We want to, you know, reduce duplication of services. We want to be able to coordinate and leverage what we do have in our community, and look for those gaps,” said Kim Montgomery, juvenile detention alternatives administrator with Bernalillo County.

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The most recent allocation is nearly $300,000 per year for a three-year period. The board discussed their goals for the money, including diverting at-risk youth before they end up in the system and reducing gaps in existing services.

However, the first order of business Monday was getting organized: “We deal with money, and we deal with a lot of the agencies that work here; and so, how are we reporting back to each other?” Montgomery asked.

Montgomery said applications for the money should become available in the coming weeks. The board meets again in two months to start looking at ways to allocate the funds.

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