This research was supported by grant number 95-JN-CX-0023 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice.

Points of view or opinions expressed in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of OJJDP or the U.S. Department of Justice.

From the Administrator The rehabilitation of serious, chronic juvenile offenders does not end with their release from secure confinement. On the contrary, effective aftercare interventions are key to preventing recidivism among this challenging population. In 1987, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention established a research and demonstration program to develop, assess, and disseminate an intensive aftercare program targeted at these offenders. This program, the Intensive Aftercare Program (IAP), seeks to reduce recidivism among high-risk juvenile parolees by providing a continuum of supervision and services during institutionalization and after release. This Bulletin provides an overview of the IAP model and describes its implementation over the first 3 years by participating sites in Colorado, Nevada, New Jersey, and Virginia. The Bulletin also assesses the extent to which the implementation has been successful and identifies the factors that facilitate implementation and those that impede it. As the information in this Bulletin details, IAP programs play an important role in providing serious, chronic juvenile offenders with the balanced supervision and services they need to turn from a path to crime. John J. Wilson Acting Administrator