Supreme Court Receives $30,000 for Juvenile Justice Database

 CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia received $30,000 from Gov. Joe Manchin III on Tuesday, August 11, 2009, for support of the Juvenile Justice Database.

The grant will pay for a database manager who will maintain, administer, and troubleshoot the database, said Division of Probation Services Director Mike Lacy, who will oversee the project.

The Juvenile Justice Database was automated in 2003 and collects information from probation officers in every circuit in the state about juveniles who are referred to court. The database holds demographic information on juvenile charges and disposition of juvenile cases.

The database previously was managed by the Division of Criminal Justice Services, until the Court asked to take charge of the database and the request was granted by the Legislature in the 2009 session.

Mr. Lacy said the statistics collected are used by state agencies for grant writing, juvenile justice planning, and determining trends in cases across the state.

"It’s my pleasure to be able to serve as the project director to oversee this program and the collection of data of juvenile offences in West Virginia," Mr. Lacy said. "With this database, we can provide information to government agencies and look to the future with regard to juvenile justice planning in West Virginia."

This grant was one of 32 awarded to varies juvenile projects across the state by Gov. Manchin.

"On behalf of the state I want to say thank you. Everyone has done work that sometimes goes unnoticed, but this is our way of saying thanks," said Gov. Manchin.

"We are saying to maintain juvenile delinquent population records, we have to keep good data," said Supreme Court Administrative Director Steve Canterbury. "Good data is vital not only to access what is going on in the juvenile population but as predictive for the adult offender population."