Virginia Behavioral Health Data Spotlight | Department of Juvenile Justice

Facilitated by OMNI, The Virginia State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup (SEOW) is developing a set of data spotlights to feature behavioral health-related data sources across the state. The goal of the data spotlights is to support Virginia's substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts.

The need for data transparency and cross-sector data sharing has never been more apparent.  In Virginia, we have worked with the State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup for several years to increase state-wide access to data to aid efforts in substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery. 

In this third Data Spotlight, we highlight the data collection efforts of the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice's (DJJ) Research and Data Units that design and coordinate a wide variety of reports on data and trends in all program and service areas, including court service units (CSUs),Virginia Juvenile Community Crime Control Act (VJCCCA) programs, Juvenile Detention Centers (JDCs), and direct care programs.

The data brief is designed to encourage data sharing, inform the public on report and database access, and demonstrate how Juvenile Justice information can be used to build up prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts.

The DJJ tracks data related to

• Trends: Juvenile intakes, admissions, detainments, placements, and average daily populations

• Juvenile Characteristics: Average age, diversion eligibility, offenses, and treatment needs

• Length of Stay: Juvenile detention center, probation, and direct care releases

• Recidivism Rates: Repeat arrests, convictions, incarcerations, and probation/parole placements

• Expenditures: DJJ in total and DJJ’s direct caretrends, juvenile characteristics, average lengths of stay, recidivism rates, and expenditures to support prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts across the state.

While the data shows a reduction in admission rates related to intakes, probation and parole placements, and detainments over the last decade, it highlights the juvenile trauma exposure of youth involved in the juvenile justice system. In 2019,  95% of committed youth have experienced at least one form of trauma in their lives. As we’ve noted in a previous post,  Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can have wide-reaching and enduring health effects on a child’s life through adulthood, including increased likelihood of cardiovascular disease, cancer, substance misuse, and a lifetime history of depression.

In this new report, we show  how different systems within a state, including the Juvenile Justice System, community partners, and state policy decision-makers, can benefit from sharing access to this data. We also provide  direct access to publications and databases that house much of the DJJ data.

Click here for the full report.