The Florida Senate

20.316  Department of Juvenile Justice.--There is created a Department of Juvenile Justice.

(1)  SECRETARY OF JUVENILE JUSTICE.--

(a)  The head of the Department of Juvenile Justice is the Secretary of Juvenile Justice. The secretary of the department shall be appointed by the Governor and shall serve at the pleasure of the Governor.

(b)  The Secretary of Juvenile Justice is responsible for planning, coordinating, and managing the delivery of all programs and services within the juvenile justice continuum. For purposes of this section, the term "juvenile justice continuum" means all children-in-need-of-services programs; families-in-need-of-services programs; other prevention, early intervention, and diversion programs; detention centers and related programs and facilities; community-based residential and nonresidential commitment programs; and delinquency institutions provided or funded by the department.

(c)  The Secretary of Juvenile Justice shall:

1.  Ensure that juvenile justice continuum programs and services are implemented according to legislative intent; state and federal laws, rules, and regulations; statewide program standards; and performance objectives by reviewing and monitoring regional and district program operations and providing technical assistance to those programs.

2.  Identify the need for and recommend the funding and implementation of an appropriate mix of programs and services within the juvenile justice continuum, including prevention, diversion, nonresidential and residential commitment programs, training schools, and reentry and aftercare programs and services, with an overlay of educational, vocational, alcohol, drug abuse, and mental health services where appropriate.

3.  Provide for program research, development, and planning.

4.  Develop staffing and workload standards and coordinate staff development and training.

5.  Develop budget and resource allocation methodologies and strategies.

6.  Establish program policies and rules and ensure that those policies and rules encourage cooperation, collaboration, and information sharing with community partners in the juvenile justice system to the extent authorized by law.

7.  Develop funding sources external to state government.

8.  Obtain, approve, monitor, and coordinate research and program development grants.

9.  Enter into contracts.

(d)  The secretary shall periodically review the needs in each commitment region.

(2)  DEPUTY SECRETARY FOR OPERATIONS.--The secretary shall appoint a Deputy Secretary for Operations who shall supervise the managers of the 15 services districts within the department.

(3)  ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF PROGRAMMING AND PLANNING.--The secretary shall appoint an Assistant Secretary of Programming and Planning who shall head the following divisions:

(a)  Division of Prevention and Intervention.

(b)  Division of Detention and Commitment.

(4)  SERVICE DISTRICTS.--The department shall plan and administer its programs through service districts and subdistricts composed of the following counties:

District 1.--Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, and Walton Counties;

District 2.--Holmes, Washington, Bay, Jackson, Calhoun, Gulf, Gadsden, Liberty, Franklin, Leon, Wakulla, Jefferson, Madison, and Taylor Counties;

District 3.--Hamilton, Suwannee, Lafayette, Dixie, Columbia, Gilchrist, Levy, Union, Bradford, Putnam, and Alachua Counties;

District 4.--Baker, Nassau, Duval, Clay, and St. Johns Counties;

District 5.--Pasco and Pinellas Counties;

District 6.--Hillsborough and Manatee Counties;

District 7.--Seminole, Orange, Osceola, and Brevard Counties;

District 8.--Sarasota, DeSoto, Charlotte, Lee, Glades, Hendry, and Collier Counties;

District 9.--Palm Beach County;

District 10.--Broward County;

District 11.--Dade and Monroe Counties;

District 12.--Flagler and Volusia Counties;

District 13.--Marion, Citrus, Hernando, Sumter, and Lake Counties;

District 14.--Polk, Hardee, and Highlands Counties; and

District 15.--Indian River, Okeechobee, St. Lucie, and Martin Counties.

(5)  COMMITMENT REGIONS.--The department shall plan and administer its community and institutional delinquency programs, children-in-need-of-services programs, and families-in-need-of-services programs through commitment regions composed of the following service districts:

Northwest Region.--Districts 1 and 2.

Northeast Region.--Districts 3, 4, 12, and 13.

Eastern Region.--Districts 7, 9, and 15.

Western Region.--Districts 5, 6, 8, and 14.

Southern Region.--Districts 10 and 11.

(6)  INFORMATION SYSTEMS.--

(a)  The Department of Juvenile Justice shall develop, in consultation with the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Information Systems Council under s. 943.08, a juvenile justice information system which shall provide information concerning the department's activities and programs.

(b)  In establishing the computing and network infrastructure for the development of the information system, the department shall develop a system design to set the direction for the information system. That design shall include not only department system requirements but also data exchange requirements of other state and local juvenile justice system organizations.

(c)  The department shall implement a distributed system architecture which shall be defined in its agency strategic plan.

(d)  The management information system shall, at a minimum:

1.  Facilitate case management of juveniles referred to or placed in the department's custody.

2.  Provide timely access to current data and computing capacity to support the outcome evaluation activities of the Juvenile Justice Accountability Board as provided in s. 985.401, legislative oversight, the Juvenile Justice Estimating Conference, and other research.

3.  Provide automated support to the quality assurance and program review functions.

4.  Provide automated support to the contract management process.

5.  Provide automated support to the facility operations management process.

6.  Provide automated administrative support to increase efficiency, provide the capability of tracking expenditures of funds by the department or contracted service providers that are eligible for federal reimbursement, and reduce forms and paperwork.

7.  Facilitate connectivity, access, and utilization of information among various state agencies, and other state, federal, local, and private agencies, organizations, and institutions.

8.  Provide electronic public access to juvenile justice information, which is not otherwise made confidential by law or exempt from the provisions of s. 119.07(1).

9.  Provide a system for the training of information system users and user groups.

(e)  The department shall aggregate, on a quarterly and an annual basis, the program information, demographic, program utilization rate, and statistical data of the youth served into a descriptive report and shall disseminate the quarterly and annual reports to substantive committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

(f)  The department shall provide an annual report on the juvenile justice information system to the ¹Joint Information Technology Resources Committee. The committee shall review and forward the report, along with its comments, to the appropriate substantive and appropriations committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate delineating the development status of the system and other information necessary for funding policy formulation.

(g)  The department shall include in its annual budget request a comprehensive summary of costs involved in the establishment of the information system and cost savings associated with its implementation. The budget request must also include a complete inventory of staff, equipment, and facility resources for development and maintenance of the system.

History.--s. 1, ch. 94-209; s. 1321, ch. 95-147; ss. 2, 30, ch. 95-267; s. 7, ch. 96-388; s. 29, ch. 97-286; s. 4, ch. 98-251; s. 2, ch. 98-280; s. 9, ch. 99-2.

¹Note.--Section 11.39, which created the Joint Legislative Information Technology Resource Committee, was repealed by s. 5, ch. 98-136.