A $4.8 million-a-year city program that was supposed to divert juveniles away from the criminal justice system and toward social services “may actually re-traumatize” young people or “increase their likelihood of re-offending,” Inspector General Joe Ferguson said Tuesday.

Fourteen years after the Juvenile Intervention and Support Center was created, Ferguson concluded that it’s impossible to determine whether the goal of reducing juvenile recidivism has been accomplished in exchange for the city’s investment.

That’s because of a host of problems ranging from poor record keeping, destroyed case records and lack of collaboration between Chicago Police and the Department of Family and Support Services to inadequate training of police officers who bid for their jobs based on seniority — not on “experience or aptitude for working with youth.”

Ferguson acknowledged it’s “unlikely the program is leading to a greater number of arrests.” But his audit also concluded: “Components of the design do not align with best practices of youth diversion programs and may actually re-traumatize youth or increase their likelihood of reoffending.”

What’s more, the audit found that “diversion of ... arrestees from further involvement in the justice system is inconsistent and inequitable.”

Police “overrode arrest disposition in one quarter of the cases,” the audit found, but “for every youth it [overrode and] diverted from having more involvement in the justice system, it sent two deeper into the system.”

Garien Gatewood, program director of the Illinois Justice Project, applauded Ferguson for “shining the light on how flawed the system has been over the years.”

Noting that the program is housed at 3900 S. California Ave., once one of disgraced Area 2 Commander Jon Burge’s “old stomping grounds,” Gatewood said: “It was supposed to be a place where children and families could go to get services instead of kids being pushed into juvenile court. But that hasn’t been the case so far. Instead, what you’ve seen is a higher recidivism rate.”

Created in 2006

The Juvenile Intervention Support Center was created by former Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2006 with help from a federal grant. It serves 10 of Chicago’s 22 police districts.

The goal was to disrupt the downward cycle that can occur when young people engage in impulsive and risky behavior, get arrested and find themselves saddled with criminal records that make it difficult to get jobs, get into college or serve in the military.

The center processed 3,356 arrests out of 7,786 booked juvenile arrests citywide from June 2017 through May 2018. Ferguson wanted to find out if it accomplished its goals.

He found that:

• SGA Youth and Family Services, the city’s designated case manager, did not keep complete and consistent records and police destroyed youth screening records in violation of the Local Records Act.

• In 34.7% of cases, SGA recommended social services the youth did not need, even though the case manager acknowledged sending low-needs youth to unnecessary services “may do more harm than good and could ultimately increase the risk of recidivism.”

• The police department and Department of Family and Support Services have resisted sharing program data with each other and with the public and have operated the center for nearly 14 years “without demonstrating evidence of its effectiveness.” The center still has no charter, memorandum of understanding or governing board.

• Because it’s not designed according to best practices for youth diversion programs, the center subjects youth to a “negative experience that does not encourage their success.” The facility operates “much like a traditional police station,” and CPD does not use an “empirically-validated screening tool to determine which youth to offer diversion through the center.”

• Nearly 90% of eligible arrestees were brought to the center for processing. While the center may be diverting many youth from court, there were “inequities” in the process for determining which arrestees were diverted from further involvement in the system.

Ferguson recommended the facility be turned into “more of a diversion and services center and less like a police station or lock-up.”

He urged police and Family and Support Services to forge an agreement that establishes shared goals, creates accountability measures and sets the stage for data sharing and uniform reporting to assess the center’s performance.

Family and Support Services was advised to make certain the case management agency develops written policies and procedures. CPD was asked to implement and enforce a written policy for collecting and retaining risk screening forms to ensure records are not destroyed.

Nearly all the suggestions were embraced by the departments. CPD, however, refused to commit to notifying the records commission of its failure to retain the screening forms.

Chicago police declined to comment.