AG19770804 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

I STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT Of HUMAN RESOURCES 325 NORTH SALISBURY STREET JAMES B. HUNT. JR. SARAH T. MORROW. GOV£RNO~ RALEIGH 27611 TELEPHONE July ]8~ 1977 Mr. Charles D. McGinnis Cabarrus County Manager P. O. Box 707 Concord, NC 28025 Dear Mr. McGinnis: The 1975 session of the North Carolina General Assembly enacted legis- lation aimed at reducing the commitmeRt of certain juvenile offenders to the State Training School System. That legislation (HB 456) established as State policy the goal of eliminating the so called "status offenders" from the Training Schoo] system by July 1, 1977. In 1976 the special budget session of the General Assembly appropriated $250,000 to a Community Services Fund that was used to begin the process of sBpplementing locally developed co,~unity based alternatives throughout the State. Since assl~ming the duties of Secretary of the Department of Human Resonrces in January of this year I have designated tile area of Children's Services as one of the top priorities for this Department for tile next four years. Within that priority one of the most important single zssues is the effective expansion of state support to local government in the provision of community based alternatives for delinquent youth whose needs can best be met at the local level. The purpose of this letter is to report briefly to you on the actions that have been taken over the past several months by this office and by the recently adjourned 1977 Session of the General Assembly. In view of the lack of sufficient community based alternatives to meet adequately the needs of the courts the General Assembly extended by one year the implementation date for the removal of "status offenders" from training school. To promote significant expansion of needed local servmces to meet the new deadline, the General Assembly appropriated one million dollars for each year of the biennium.