{"id":267812,"date":"2026-05-12T10:37:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/267812\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T10:37:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:37:06","slug":"alternative-programs-helping-reshape-futures-of-young-people-in-south-florida-at-risk-of-entering-justice-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/267812\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternative Programs helping reshape futures of young people in South Florida at risk of entering justice system"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s a program transforming lives and reshaping futures across our community.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/tapflorida.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Alternative Programs<\/a> offers no-cash-bail alternatives to incarceration for youth and adult non-violent offenders in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/tag\/south-florida\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">South Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Tenth-grader Kairo Black is getting a second chance and making the most of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s part of The Alternative Programs&#8217; rehabilitative youth initiative, focused on behavior, academics, and real-life skills for young people in, or at risk of entering the justice system.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I first learned about this program during probation, signing up for probation and I decided to do an intake, and it did well,&#8221; Black said.<\/p>\n<p>Participants take part in community service and character-building programs, helping them grow and give back.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Founded in 1982 by Georgia Jones-Ayers and then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/tag\/miami-dade\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Miami-Dade<\/a> State Attorney Janet Reno, the program offers alternatives to jail for non-violent offenders.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Executive Director Kenneth Kilpatrick says the results speak for themselves.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have a very awesome success rate,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Recidivism is less than 5%. Once you get to us, the transformation is almost a guarantee, we&#8217;ve served tens of thousands of people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kilpatrick said they have to look at public safety as a whole.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So public safety is not just about enforcement, it&#8217;s about opportunities,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;So, the opportunities that we present also equals safer neighborhoods, safer communities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Board Vice Chair and longtime <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/tag\/miami\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Miami<\/a> journalist Bea L. Hines has supported the program from the start.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It will make our community better, what helps your child, helps my child and it will trickle down,&#8221; Hines said.<\/p>\n<p>For Kairo Black, the impact is already clear.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My perspective on things has changed because I look at things more at the long route, like the way everything will go after I do something&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Now, he&#8217;s focused on a fresh start and making better choices.<\/p>\n<p>The Alternative Programs said it hopes to expand, reaching more qualifying participants across additional courtrooms, and growing its impact throughout north and south Miami-Dade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s a program transforming lives and reshaping futures across our community.\u00a0 The Alternative Programs offers no-cash-bail alternatives to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[502,28,30,29,1064,807],"class_list":["post-267812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-community","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-miami-dade","tag-south-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}