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Welcome to the JJA Home Page

Commissioner Jennings

The Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority is a cabinet level criminal justice agency that began operating on July 1, 1997. Individuals as young as ten years of age and as old as 17 years of age may be adjudicated as juvenile offenders and ordered into the custody of the Commissioner of Juvenile Justice. The JJA may retain custody of a juvenile offender in a juvenile correctional facility to the age of 22 1/2 and in the community to the age of 23.

The JJA leads a broad-based state and local, public and private partnership to provide the state's comprehensive juvenile justice system. This includes prevention and intervention programs, community-based graduated sanctions and juvenile correctional facilities.

JJA Mission and Vision

Our vision at JJA is "Changing lives of at-risk youth and their families for safer, stronger Kansas communities."

The Mission of the JJA

The Juvenile Justice Authority assists youth to become successful and productive citizens by providing leadership and support to:

Prevent youth from becoming involved in the juvenile justice system
Provide community supervision for youth who are involved in the juvenile justice system
Provide safe, secure, humane and restorative confinement of youth to enhance public safety
Promote public safety by holding youth accountable for their behavior, and improve the ability of youth to live productively and responsibly in their communities.

As we strive to meet our mission, Kansans will enjoy safer communities through prevention, intervention, rehabilitation and reintegration services provided to children and their families.

JJA's History and Community Focus

The Juvenile Justice Reform process implemented in Kansas from 1997 to 2000 is the foundation for juvenile programming in Kansas. Juvenile Justice Reform was focused on prevention, intervention, and community-based services, and that a youth should be placed in a juvenile correctional facility for rehabilitation and reform only as a last resort. Youth are more effectively rehabilitated and served in their own community.

Because the JJA's focus is to serve youth in their community, each county or group of cooperating counties is required by statute to make themselves eligible to receive state funding for the development, implementation, operation, and improvement of juvenile community correctional services. Each individual county, or the designee of a group of counties, is referred to as an administrative county and directly receives funding from the agency for operation of community juvenile justice services.

Pivotal roles of the Prevention and Community Programs Division include: ensuring the community service continuum is efficient and effective in addressing the needs of the youth; building upon established collaborations with local units of government and other key stakeholders; and, monitoring programs along the continuum of services from prevention and intervention to rehabilitative service delivery.