Frontier Health is pleased to announce that Ms. Kathy Benedetto, Senior Vice President of Tennessee Children’s Services, has been appointed to the Governor’s Juvenile Justice Reform Implementation Council.
During the last legislative session, Governor Bill Haslam proposed, and the Tennessee General Assembly passed, reforms to the state’s juvenile justice system based on recommendations from the Joint Ad-hoc Tennessee Blue Ribbon Task Force on Juvenile Justice.
“This legislation was a positive first step and there is more work to be done with respect to juvenile justice and criminal justice reform in Tennessee,” Haslam said. “This Council will help ensure that reform is pursued in a responsible manner, and judges and other juvenile justice system stakeholders will have a committed team with whom to collaborate on additional changes to strengthen families and make our communities safer.”
The Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018 will make Tennessee’s juvenile justice system more effective, improve outcomes for youth offenders, and increase public safety. The Council will promote consistent statewide implementation of the legislation, develop performance measures, consider further policy recommendations, and support improving statewide juvenile justice-related data collection.
Ms. Benedetto commented, “I am pleased to have been selected by Governor Haslam to serve as a member of this committee. Our juvenile judges face tough decisions daily and had a major role in shaping the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018. I hopeful that this commission will help insure that the additional resources provided for children and families are effective in keeping children with their families whenever possible.”
Ms. Benedetto has been instrumental in growing services for children and families in our region for over 40 years, including Safe Schools programs in five school systems, early intervention and prevention programs, and school based mental health services in eight school systems, and other programs addressing violence abuse and child abuse prevention, anti-drug efforts, eating disorders, and therapeutic foster care.
