Topeka ? With two new juvenile correctional facilities soon to open, Kansas will have more places to lock away young criminals. But advocates of change in the juvenile justice system say the state must also continue to work toward crime prevention — not just punishment.

“Housing people is never the solution,” said Denise Everhart, commissioner of the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority.

The $22 million Larned Juvenile Correctional Center in west-central Kansas, designed for juveniles with mental or substance-abuse problems, opens June 9. Another new institution, costing $38 million and including maximum security units for the most dangerous juveniles, will open next year in Topeka.

That will bring the number of juvenile correctional facilities in the state to six, with a total capacity of 744.

As of mid-May, Kansas housed 469 juvenile offenders. That is down from the 500-plus of five years ago. But a new sentencing law has taken effect, and youths are getting longer sentences now.

Forecasts done for the state suggest that the new institutions are needed. As many as 840 young persons may be in juvenile correctional facilities by December 2007, the projections indicate.

State Sen. David Adkins of Leawood, a leading proponent of juvenile justice reform, said the new institutions in Larned and Topeka were badly needed but shouldn’t take away from efforts to prevent crime.

More than 150 community programs already exist for troubled juveniles, with the aim of keeping youths from winding up in a penitentiary. Grants to pay for them exceed $40 million a year.

In January, state auditors questioned the effectiveness of some of those programs.

“We couldn’t tell whether prevention grant moneys are going toward programs that are meeting their goals because, for the most part, that information isn’t available, and what is available may not be accurate or meaningful,” a report from the auditors said.

Adkins called the report “fairly disturbing.”

“I have yet to see a new and energized vision for juvenile justice,” he said.

Everhart said the new Larned institution represented a big step forward for her agency. Other moves have been undertaken too, she said.

The administrative hierarchy has been reorganized, she said, and new auditors have been hired to improve accountability in crime prevention programs.

The authority operates with a budget of about $87 million, and by some accounts reform has had success. Three years ago, 17,900 juvenile offender cases were filed in Kansas. Last year, the number dropped to 15,800.

“I think we have a good structure in place,” said Everhart, whose office oversees prevention activities and correctional facilities. “There is more that we need to do.”

In January, a report from auditors for the Legislature criticized the authority. Just after taking office this year, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius brought in Everhart as a replacement for Albert Murray.

“They’ve made a lot of progress,” said Rochelle Chronister, head of the Kansas Advisory Group on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

But juvenile justice reform is far from complete, said Chronister, a Neodesha resident who once was a state legislator and state administrator.

“What they need are community alternatives,” she said. “I’m not sure we need to lock up all of those juveniles.”