Project Back-on-Track

Project Back-on-Track is an afterschool diversion program designed to help divert youths in early stages of delinquency from committing future crimes. It uses a multifaceted approach that targets factors contributing to delinquent behavior. Program youths participate in a 4-week cycle of treatment consisting of group and family therapies, parent groups, educational sessions, community service projects, and empathy-building exercises. These youths attend the program 2 hours a day for 4 days a week, allowing 32 hours of contact with the program per cycle. Parents attend the program 15 hours per cycle. Most youths (93 percent) are referred to the program by the District State Attorney's Office. Referrals are based on a youth's being an early career offender and living in the local juvenile justice district. The program accepts violent offenders (domestic assault, aggravated assault, sexual assault), drug offenders, and property offenders.

The goal of this program is to help divert youths in early stages of delinquency from committing future crimes.

The evaluation used a quasi-experimental design with a nonequivalent control group and a 1-year follow-up. The evaluation indicated that Project Back-on-Track completers were significantly less likely than the matched controls to have committed subsequent criminal offenses within 12 months following their participation in the program. In addition, they had significantly fewer subsequent criminal charges at 9- and 12-month follow-up intervals than the controls. Finally, by decreasing the frequency of criminal recidivism, it was estimated that the program resulted in a savings of $1,800 per youth enrolled after 1 year.