A sharp increase in the number of case filings involving children in need of services comes as the number of juvenile delinquencies across Indiana is decreasing, which Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush attributes to the state court system’s focus on increasing resources to juvenile courts and assigning appropriate punishments to juvenile offenders.
In 2015, 17,491 CHINS cases were filed in Indiana courts of record, up from 14,227 in 2014, a 22.9 percent increase, according to the 2015 Indiana Judicial Service Report. Over the 10-year period between 2006 and 2015, CHINS filings increased by 97.4 percent.