4-RFM

Juvenile Corrections

Introduction

At the end of the juvenile court process comes a major decision: how to sentence the juvenile for his or her delinquent act. There are many options, including probation, community service, counseling, electronic monitoring, county-level detention, or juvenile corrections, among other things. The process of juvenile correction— including types of institutions, programs, aftercare and its effectiveness, dual standards and special needs juveniles—will be covered this week.

This Week in Relation to the Course

Juvenile corrections is often seen as the last resort for a juvenile, and it can be the gateway to adult prison. The task of juvenile corrections is enormously difficult. The average age of a juvenile corrections client is approximately 16.5 years. The average stay in juvenile corrections is usually 6 months. As a juvenile corrections administrator, how would you want the youth to spend this time—working, attending school, receiving counseling, or sitting in corrective lockup? The reality is that very few of these youths will complete high school either while institutionalized or after release. If the youth is returned to his or her former home setting and ordered to attend school as a condition of release, there is a high probability of failure. The youth, no matter how well motivated, may be treated differently by both students and teachers. This can eventually wear the youth down and his or her self-concept will suffer. Association with an underachieving group or truancy normally follows, with a visit by the truant officer or parole officer. Maybe he or she is returned to juvenile corrections. Then the youth turns 18, and nobody has authority, responsibility, or (in many cases) interest in him or her. Your judgment of the youth’s chances for success from this point is as good as anyone else’s is. As a juvenile justice professional, you determine your own definition or concept of success. You might find it interesting to discuss what your idea of success is at this point, and then review your definition in 5 years.

Discussion of a Key Point, Thread, or Objective

• juvenile corrections

• secure confinement

• group homes

• rehabilitation

• industrial schools

• halfway houses

• shock incarceration

• parole

• parole revocation

How Tools, Readings, and Simulations Help Solidify Concepts

As you read about the variety of components and goals of a state’s typical juvenile corrections system, you should examine what you know and do not know about how juvenile corrections works in your state. For example, Arizona’s model has been to emphasize schooling even to the point of naming their institutions schools. Texas on the other hand touts the importance of training and work experience, and attempts to return youth gradually to the community through camps or halfway houses and eventually to a paid job and a place to live. California refers to their system as the Youth Authority and may keep a youth in the juvenile system until age 25. Seeing the descriptions of the many programs available in many states (and countries for that matter), how does your state compare? Think what you know about programs in your state. How many correctional institutions for youth does your state have? How many youths are in secure confinement at this time? What is the gender and racial ratio of those confined?

Summary

Juvenile correctional facilities have borne the brunt of criticism nationwide for years. Many youths seem to use these facilities as a stepping-stone to adult prison. Programs and approaches abound to change the problems that states have experienced in the operation of juvenile corrections facilities. The current trend seems to be to divert the less serious delinquents away from secure confinement and into the community and to transfer the very serious youth to the adult system at a younger age. This would appear to leave a more homogenous group (at least from a criminal history point of view) to be dealt with in the juvenile corrections system. There continues to be, however, great disparity among the states regarding the most efficacious approach.