25th and Keystone: Where juvenile justice reform in Marion Co. begins

With ongoing concerns for youth safety on its radar, the Marion County Superior Court has developed a new initiative to reform juvenile justice—and it’s entirely outside of a courtroom.

The Marion County Family Youth and Intervention Center, which opened last fall on the east side of Indianapolis, was created to divert juveniles from the justice system early by giving those in crisis a safe place to spend their time.

Although it’s currently awaiting state licensure to operate as a 24-hour residential facility, the center has already welcomed more than 20 juveniles and given them resources and specialty care.

“This provides Marion County with a response that doesn’t involve anyone else coming in and telling them how to do their [parents’] job,” said Christine Kerl, chief probation officer for Marion County. “Parenting is tough. Being a kid’s tough. Our court is giving a response to the community, because we know it’s going to make a difference.”

How it works

Although the FYI Center was established by the courts, it’s not just another juvenile detention facility. It exists almost completely outside the system.

For some kids, the center is a place to go to avoid trouble or escape from tensions at home. For others, it might be a place to get food.

“What kids need, well, No. 1, they want to be heard; No. 2, they’re hungry; and No. 3, sometimes they need a soft place to land,” said Melanie Pitstick, chief deputy probation officer for Marion County.

There are several pathways that lead youth aged 12 to 17 to the center: parental, local law enforcement or self-referral.

When they arrive, kids are met by dedicated case workers and specialists who can provide specific resources to meet their needs. From case management to independent living skills to recreational activities, the facility provides an array of community resources to keep kids productive.

The center has already intervened in more serious problems.

FYI Center Director Lety Martinez said two kids who came to the center were assessed using the Columbia Protocol, a suicide screening tool used by medical providers nationwide, and found to be at high risk for suicide.

“As a provider, it feels good that we’ve been able to at least intervene in two of those,” Martinez said. “We don’t know what would have happened.”

According to the Indiana Center for Prevention of Youth Suicide and Abuse, the state has had a youth suicide rate higher than the national average since 1999.

Although the center’s staff is not formally trained in mental health care, Martinez emphasized staff members do well engaging with kids to “de-escalate them and just redirect them.”

“That’s been helpful,” she said.

From Tucson to Indy

The judiciary’s vision for reform arose a few years ago, amid concerns that its previous approach to addressing youth needed to change.

“What we’re doing is not working,” Kerl said of the court’s thoughts at the time.

So about seven years ago, the Marion Superior Court began to reorganize itself by developing out the family division, and with that move, a philosophy arose about diverting youth from the system entirely.

“The whole goal is trying to come up with a way to have one judge, one family model—that way the judge would be
aware of everything that’s going on,” Marion County Superior Court Judge Amy Jones said.

Jones said the court reached out to the National Center for State Courts as a consultant to see which courts around the country Marion County should model itself after.

Court officials took a trip out west, and while visiting Pima County, Arizona, Marion County officials learned about the Alternative Community Engagement Services Center, a drop-off and referral center providing community resources for juveniles with minor or no offenses.

As talks about building a new juvenile detention facility (which is now located at the Criminal Justice Center campus) began in Marion County, the court wanted to find a way to replicate Pima County’s direction by including a respite center in the planning.

“This was a project that it was like, OK, we need this, and we need to make it work no matter what,” Jones said.

But officials faced a hurdle: Where would they get the money?

The court received $40 million from the Circle City Forward Project, an initiative started in 2021 by Mayor Joe Hogsett to redirect public funds toward city projects and parks. But it was only enough to cover the new juvenile detention center.

“There was a ton of pushback as far as how much money was being spent on a kid jail,” Jones said. “That was very concerning to community members, very concerning to counselors. And we had a limited amount of money that was going to be allocated to this project, and they were like, ‘You’re not getting a penny more.’”

Not wanting to abandon the original plan—and realizing it couldn’t afford to build a center from scratch—the court searched for existing buildings owned by the city.

At 25th and Keystone, on the city’s east side, the court found the old Court House Annex Building.

“This was a blessing in disguise,” Jones said.

The annex was located in the area of the highest number of juvenile referrals in the entire court system, Jones said, and it was completely disconnected from the rest of the criminal justice system.

Even with a location found, the court still needed to secure the money necessary to get the program going. Pitstick said the court sought any type of grant it could.

“We started just applying,” she said.

Eventually, officials won $1 million from Indianapolis’s opioid settlement fund, and with the help of the city/county Building Authority, the court was able to turn the old annex into the FYI Center.

In September 2025, the center officially opened its doors to the community.

Concerns for youth

Although national juvenile arrests have declined by more than 75% since their peak in 1995, Jones said the court still has ongoing concerns about violence within the home and in surrounding neighborhoods.

In 2023, Indiana had one of the nation’s highest youth incarceration rates, ranking 13th among all states and Washington, D.C. According to the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, 241 cases involving juveniles were filed in Indiana adult criminal courts in 2023. Those cases encompassed nearly 700 criminal offenses or charges.

“If we can intervene early and prevent any crime from actually happening, that’s the goal,” Jones said.

According to research from the National Library of Medicine, youth who are incarcerated in adolescence are more likely to be incarcerated later in life. They are also more likely to suffer from alcohol abuse and receive public assistance, compared with youth who were never incarcerated.

“A lot of the people that are coming to the criminal justice system will be back in the community,” Jones said. “If we don’t do anything and intervene—whether it’s before that ever happens or trying to make positive changes for them while they are serving a sentence—then really we’re not doing our job.”

The Marion County courts have been scrutinized in recent years for releasing certain individuals back into the community who then reoffend. Legislation was proposed this year to add more guardrails on who can be released early. Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, proposed Senate Joint Resolution 1, which proposes a Constitutional amendment to change the state’s bail provisions.

And state Rep. Andrew Ireland, R-Indianapolis, proposed a Constitutional amendment to allow for the impeachment of what he called “rogue” prosecutors and judges.

Jones said the court hears the community’s critiques but emphasized that a lot is happening behind every decision officials make.

“There’s lots of things we have to look at. We have to look at the person; we have to look at their risk,” she said. “We have to look at what is in the best interest of that person to make sure that when they do enter society again, that they are not going to reoffend.”

Judges are members of the community, too, Jones added, and they also care about who they let back into society.

That’s why Jones has hope the FYI Center will be successful.

“What if we could get [kids] the offer of assistance before they ever hit the point of being arrested and having handcuffs and going to jail?” she said.

Awaiting licensure

The FYI Center is a place that Martinez wishes would have been available to her own sister years ago.

“If I had this back home, because I saw my sister struggle so much, I know that it would have been just so helpful to her to just kind of keep out of trouble,” she said.

Martinez is willing to go door to door to spread the word about the opportunities the center provides.

“I know that there’s kids out there who don’t know about it, and if they knew they would come here,” she said.

The next hurdle the center must tackle before being allowed to house kids overnight is obtaining an Indiana Department of Child Services emergency shelter care license.

“This community needs emergency shelter care,” Pitstick said, “because we are severely lacking in appropriate placements for youth.”

Right now, the primary barrier preventing the center from getting the license is a food service contract, but that costs money.

“It’s not for lack of anyone saying this is necessary; it’s warranted; it’s justified,” Kerl said. “It truly comes down to, ‘Show me the cash,’ to prove that I can pay the contract, and we’re ready to go. So we’re close, we’re close.”

The center won a $1,200 Walmart grant, which has been used to buy frozen food for the center, but that money is proected to run out by the end of March.

So for now, the center will continue serving Indianapolis’ youth, even if it’s not for 24 hours a day.

And Jones is hopeful that once a couple of years pass and the center can begin to show results, Indianapolis residents will see the project’s worth and the need to invest in it.

“Now we’re going to have to prove ourselves,” Jones said.•