The purpose of this MOU is to establish guidelines for an Evening Reporting Center to be located adjacent to the City of Riviera Beach YEC, and to work cooperatively with the City’s YEC to prevent and/or reduce juvenile delinquency by allowing the court system to divert youth to an Evening Reporting Center (ERC), rather than to secure detention.
Youth held in secure detention do not always need to be securely confined, but may be in need of an alternative to secure detention in a structured community based environment to help ensure these youth appear in court, and do not reoffend pending court hearings. An Evening Reporting Center (ERC) offers an alternative to secure detention that allows youth to remain in the community, waiting a court date. An ERC is a non-secure, non-residential program where court-involved youth are supervised and engage in structured activities. The hours of operation coincide with national analysis that indicates the peak time for juvenile misbehavior is in the afternoon and early evening. An ERC is designed to keep court involved youth occupied and supervised during those hours to help prevent further delinquent activity, and failure to appear in court.
This ERC will be located and serve youth in high-referral neighborhoods by providing structured programs and services during the critical hours of the afternoon and early evening. ERC daily activities and programming will be diverse, structured and designed to provide youth with needed support (e.g., tutoring, mentoring, social skills, employability skills, incentive recreational activities, victim impact and restoration). Transportation, meals, and relevant facilitated group curricula will be provided by skilled staff. The program is supported thru the collaboration of community based organizations, city government, education, law enforcement, and youth directed agencies, and judicial partners. An ERC functions as an extension of a continuum of detention alternatives that also addresses the reduction of racial and ethnic disparities for detention youth by making the alternative accessible and offering needed services, supervision and support to positively impact youth.