A state audit found significant improvements in the accuracy of the Colorado Division of Youth Services’ reporting on recidivism and educational outcomes of young offenders. 

In 2019, the division was revealed to be miscalculating and using incomplete data for its annual reports. This resulted in reports that under-represented the recurring criminal offenses of youths discharged from the division’s custody, and over-represented the youths’ educational achievements. 

But an audit released Monday uncovered only minor human errors in the division’s most recent report. 

“The problems we identified had a limited impact on the overall accuracy of the report,” said Dana Berry, senior legislative auditor. “But there are still opportunities for the division to improve its quality control procedures to ensure that the report provides accurate and reliable information for those who use it.”

The 2019 audit found that the division was only reporting educational outcomes for 59% of youths discharged from its custody. This, on top of incorrect calculations, led to the division overstating the juveniles’ reading improvement and educational advancement. The division even erroneously claimed 95% of its eligible youths had obtained a high school diploma or GED when discharged, when only 60% had done so, according to the audit. 

The division also underestimated recidivism rates of discharged youths, not including adult misdemeanor crimes adjudicated in the Denver County Court, or delineating crimes classified under the Victim’s Rights Act. 

Since that 2019 audit, the division has begun using a uniform methodology for its reports, established quality control measures and expanded its data to, in part, include misdemeanors from Denver County Court, the severity of re-offenses and the educational advancement of juveniles beyond the 12th grade.

Thanks to these changes, the 2023 audit found that the division’s reports are “generally supported” by the data, apart from several minor errors attributed to staff mistakes.

The errors were all regarding educational outcomes, not recidivism. The errors included three out of 240 youths being incorrectly reported to have obtained their high school diploma or GED at the time of discharge, and four instances of repeated data not aligning in different places or formats in the report.

“The department will be implementing another layer of review specific to the educational outcomes report where we will have our own internal audit division review for accuracy,” a representative of the division told state legislators on Monday.

The division agreed to review its quality control procedures in July.