OPEGA told the committee it could not answer whether youth who receive DJS-contracted community services are measurably better off than similar youth who do not. The limitation, the audit said, stems from how DJS records referrals, narrative case notes in ASSIST and differing local practices around noncontract referrals.

In testimony, OPEGA and DJS described specific data limitations and short-term responses:
- Outcome analysis shortfall: OPEGA attempted a matched comparison for a service-effectiveness question but concluded the available records were insufficient to publish a confident result. “Ultimately, we didn't come up with an answer to that question that we felt confident that we could publish,” Mike Powell said.
- Case-management systems: The department has used ASSIST for years; a more recent CJAMS effort did not meet staff needs and was not fully deployed. DJS said it will issue an RFP for a new system and pursue interim fixes to allow staff to quantify key inputs (noncontract referrals, referral dates, provider intake dates).
- Intake Decision Tool (IDT): OPEGA sampled intake cases and found the IDT's recommendation was followed a little more than half the time. Senators asked why staff routinely overrode the tool; OPEGA said overrides sometimes reflect statutory constraints, concurrent court processes or local resource realities.

Recidivism measures and related metrics

Committee members emphasized that measures of reoffending are central to judging program effectiveness. Dr. Aaron Betzinger described existing dashboards for evidence-based programs and said DJS and his research team plan to add post-discharge arrest tracking and disaggregation by race, gender and supervision status.

OPEGA noted several practical statistics in the hearing: Powell said, based on an informal calculation, about 60% of youth who come to DJS for a first intake do not return; about 20% return more than once. He also cited that among the sampled group of youths later indicted in violent crimes the majority had prior DJS involvement, with an average age at first contact of 13.

Committee direction and next steps

Lawmakers asked for documents, the IDT instrument and more detailed scoring information. DJS agreed to short-term fixes to quantify referrals within 90 days, to share the IDT and to work with academic partners to produce recidivism analyses by the end of the fiscal year.