The Juvenile Justice System: The Best Way to Deal With Juvenile Crime, Delinquency And Prevention
A Forum — February 6, 1998
While debate over federal juvenile justice legislation continues, state legislatures have already altered the juvenile justice system towards tougher laws for juveniles. Between 1992 and 1997, 41 states adopted or modified laws making it easier to prosecute juveniles in criminal courts and all states now allow juveniles under certain circumstances to be tried as adults in criminal court. Florida, for example, tries 6,000 youths between the ages of 14-18 in criminal (adult) court each year. The 1997 American Correctional Association annual directory of prisons and juvenile facilities reports that 2,634 youths under age 16 and 8,511 juveniles under 18 reside in adult institutions.
Concerns of the Adult Correctional System
Edward J. Loughran, Executive Director, Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators is concerned about the ability of the adult correctional system to serve younger offenders entering their facilities, as it has no track record of conducting specialized programs for younger people. Commissioners of adult corrections are concerned about the lack of role models for juveniles, protecting juveniles from predatory adults, increases in recidivism by youth in adult versus juvenile institutions, providing adequate educational services and the potential of suicide. They are looking to the juvenile justice system for direction.
Lessons from the Juvenile Justice System
Fortunately, the juvenile justice system has long experience in providing youth with specialized services. For example, services found to be effective in juvenile justice include: smaller, 15-25 bed, programs that reduce violent incidents; low staff/student ratios that lead to higher academic achievement; five hours of academic instruction per day (usually required by law); cognitive restructuring programs that, among other things, help young people understand thinking errors which get them into trouble; and gradual returns to the community from secure facilities through day treatment which reduces recidivism, results in higher levels of academic achievement and provides more connections to employers.
Continued Concerns of the Juvenile Justice System
Loughran cautions that increased sanctions may lead the public to believe that the juvenile justice system will no longer handle serious and violent offenders. On the contrary, juvenile corrections will still have responsibility for many serious and chronic youth offenders, increasingly until their 21st birthdays as stricter sentancing sometimes serves to keep young offenders in juvenle facilities for longer periods of time. Juvenile corrections will need specialized services to work with their older 17-21 year old population, e.g. more intensive drug and alcohol treatment components. Pre-employment training programs are particularly advisable for this population, but juvenile corrections has little experience with pre-employment training. One promising approach has been enrolling older juvenile offenders who are transitioning back into the community in job training programs that have been established for welfare recipients.
What programs/initiatives work for juveniles?
Four innovative initiatives hold additional promise for the juvenile justice field:
- In Anoka, Minnesota, a process known as police accountability conferencing brings together first time juvenile offenders and their victims each with their parents and/or support groups. The offender experiences "reintegrative shaming" and apologizes to the victim. All parties sign a contract and the charge is not filed in court.
- In Orange County, CA it was found that 70 percent of first time offenders never reappeared in court, but eight percent became chronic offenders, thus absorbing the majority of the county's juvenile justice resources. The "Eight Percent Solution" identifies these chronic offenders early and provides victim/offender mediation, a broad range of sanctions, family preservation and support services, community service/restitution and school-to-work assistance.
- Reclaim Ohio is a process which offers fiscal incentives to counties to allow them to choose the best correctional option for each youth. Counties are discouraged from sending status offenders to overcrowded state facilities. Young people are treated closer to their families and community.
- The City of Boston has reduced juvenile violence through a balanced approach to law enforcement--cracking down on weapons offenses and drug dealing, while creating educational, employment and recreational opportunities. Now the state and city are allocating funds to create comprehensive after-school programs in 15 troubled neighborhoods.
Roxbury YouthWorks
Peter Hardie, Executive Director, Roxbury YouthWorks, describes his successful community-based program based in Boston, MA which takes young offenders on referral from the Department of Youth Services (DYS) and works to successfully reintegrate them into their home community as productive citizens. DYS often wants to keep young people out of juvenile facilities as they "are not best served in institutional settings," but usually has no placement alternatives. For example, "the school system doesn't want DYS kids." YouthWorks offers GED preparation, employment training, anger management, technology programs, counseling, several clubs and fieldtrips. The program operates from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days per week, serving 35-40 youth offenders and some non-offenders. As a community-based organization, YouthWorks has the ultimate incentive to succeed with its clients: "we need to live with these young people when they return to our community." YouthWorks is devoted to seeing the young offenders they serve as "humans rather than criminals."