Maybe it’s not how much money a state spends on juvenile offenders but how that money is spent.

A recent Associated Press article reported on several states that were meeting budget challenges by shutting down youth counseling programs and group homes. The effect was to push more offenders into juvenile prisons, which is exactly the wrong direction to go.

Not only are prisons a more expensive way to handle the juveniles, the atmosphere in prisons is less conducive to rehabilitating youngsters and returning them to society. As South Carolina Juvenile Justice Director Bill Byars correctly noted, “If you raise a child in prison, you’re going to raise a convict.”

Fortunately, it appears Kansas may avoid this counterproductive budget-cutting strategy.

Earlier this month, the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority closed the Atchison Juvenile Correctional Facility. The move will save the state an estimated $1.96 million in the current fiscal year — and there is plenty of capacity at the state’s juvenile correctional facilities in Topeka and Larned to handle the displaced offenders.

Space is available in those facilities because the state has been successful in reducing the number of juveniles being house there. From June 2007, to September 2008, the state’s total population in juvenile correctional facilities decreased from 448 to 393.

That’s great news, but at the same time the population is dropping at correctional facilities, demand is growing for group homes that handle youths who have been convicted of crimes but don’t belong in a correctional facility. Juvenile Justice Authority J. Russell Jennings said earlier this month that about 420 youths currently are in group homes but about 40 generally are on a waiting list.

To help ease that situation, the state now is working to turn the closed Atchison correctional facility into a privately operated, 56-bed group home for juveniles. The additional capacity, Jennings said, “would get them out of detention centers quicker and into group homes.”

Which is exactly the direction we want them to go.

Obviously, not all juvenile offenders are ready for a group home setting, but for those who are, the homes get them out of a prison-like atmosphere and put them on a path to more useful and productive lives — and at less cost to state taxpayers.

As is the case for many Kansans with disabilities, the most expensive solution for juvenile offenders may not be the best. Using state funds to help people stay in their homes rather than going to more expensive nursing homes makes sense. So does moving young offenders into group home settings rather than keeping them in correctional facilities.

The state’s current budget crisis will be painful for most state-funded entities, but efforts to reduce costs actually may have a silver lining for some Kansans.