Incarcerated Youth with
Disabilities: Reintegration
into the Community,
School, and Workforce
Joseph C. Gagnon, Ph.D.
University of Florida
April 24, 2014
2
Agenda
• Youth in Juvenile Corrections: Curriculum and
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•
Characteristics
Guideposts for Success
Promising Practices for Practitioners Throughout
the Juvenile Justice Process
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Need to Understand Characteristics
• An understanding of the unique characteristics of youth
involved in the juvenile justice system is critical to
developing more effective policies, programs, and
service systems (Wagner, Kutash, Duchnowski, Epstein, & Sumi, 2005)
• Balanced consideration of community protection,
offender accountability, and competency development
are key to creating a coordinated system that truly
operates in both the best interest of the child and the
community (Harp, 2002)
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Curriculum
• Appropriate educational services for
incarcerated youth are an important element of
successful transition into society (Foley, 2001; Nelson, Leone, &
Rutherford, 2004)
• No Child Left Behind Act (2002):
 Provide all youth with a “fair, equal, and
significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality
education” (Sec. 101)
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Curriculum
• IDEA (2004) requires that services be designed
and delivered to youth with disabilities to provide
access to and progress in the general
education curriculum (Cortiella, 2006)
• The assumption:
 Providing all students with access to the general
education curriculum will prepare students for life after
exiting school (National Center on Secondary Education and Transition, 2004)
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Curriculum
• Many experts consider that education for youth
in JC schools should include access to the
general education curriculum, as well as
 pre-vocational and vocational training,
 paid work experience, and
 General Educational Development (GED) test
preparation
(Carter, Lane, Pierson, & Glasser, 2006; Lane & Carter, 2006; Nelson et al., 2004;
Rutherford, Quinn, Leone, Garfinkel, & Nelson, 2002)
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Characteristics of Incarcerated
Youth
• 38.15% of students are in special education compared to
•
•
12% in public school.
 Most of these students have emotional disturbance or
learning disabilities (Gagnon, Barber, Van Loan, &
Leone, 2009; Stizek, Pittsonberger, Riordan, Lyter, &
Orlofsky, 2007)
Typically have few academic credits and low grade point
averages (Major, Chester, McEntire, Waldo, & Blomberg,
2002)
Rarely return to high school, stay in school, and earn a
diploma upon exit from a JC school (Griller-Clark,
Rutherford, & Quinn, 2004).
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Characteristics of Incarcerated
Youth (cont.)
• Excluding conduct disorder, nearly 2/3 of males and 3/4
•
•
of females had one or more psychiatric disorders (Teplin
et al., 2002)
40-50% of youth with ED were neglected,
physically/sexually/emotionally abused (Mattison,
Spitznagel, & Felix, 1998; Oseroff, Oseroff, Westling, &
Gessner, 1999)
Of confined youth, about 1/2 of males and almost 1/2 of
females have a substance use disorder (Teplin et al.,
2002)
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9
The Guideposts for Success
1. School-Based Preparatory Experiences
• Career Preparation & Work-Based
Experiences
• Youth Development & Leadership
• Connecting Activities
• Family Involvement and Supports
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School-Based
Preparatory
Experiences
•
•
•
•
•
•
Specific Needs:
Highly qualified teachers
Curriculum aligned with state
and local standards
Educational options
Transferable credits
Meeting federal accountability
requirements
 NCLB, IDEA
Collaboration among
professionals across
disciplines
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11
Career
Preparation
& Work Place
Experiences
Examples
• North Carolina Program
• Graduated release
program
• Advocate/job
development specialist
Specific Needs:
• Comprehensive
vocational programming
• Collaboration among
education, corrections,
community organizations,
employers
• Development of career
pathways
• Instruction in work-related
skills
• Work-based experiences
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Youth
Development
& Leadership
•
•
Examples
• Project SUPPORT
• Project Parole
SUPPORT
• Local employers
serving as mentors
•
•
•
•
Specific Needs:
Highly individualized transition
plan with youth input
Transition support that recognizes
unique needs of youth in
corrections
Instruction on laws, rights,
consequences throughout process
Education on risk-taking
behaviors/consequences
Self-empowerment activities
Mentoring opportunities
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Connecting
Activities
Examples
• Cross-system
professional
development
• Comprehensive
transition policies in
state law (VA)
• Exit document
(Passport)
•
•
•
Specific Needs:
Collaboration among families,
mental health service providers,
educators, youth development
professionals, probation officers
 Clear delineation of roles
 On-going communication
Systemic responses to
transitioning youth
Assistance in addressing
sensitive issues
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Family
Supports
& Involvement
•
Examples
• Multi-systemic
Therapy
• Family-focused
mental health
treatment
•
Specific Needs:
Well-informed parent
involvement is critical at
all stages of juvenile
justice process
 Advocacy
 Information-sharing
 Prevention and
rehabilitation
Supports for parents
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Effectively Treating and Rehabilitating
Juvenile Offenders and Preventing Recidivism
Requires a model that
• Is comprehensive, community-based, and integrates
 Prevention programming
 A continuum of pre-trial and sentencing placement
options and sanctions
 Aftercare programs (Zavlek, 2005)
• Coordinates services through collaboration across






Social service
Child welfare
Mental health
Special education
Workforce development
Community programs
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15
Promising Practices for Practitioners
Throughout the Juvenile Justice Process
Prevention and Early Intervention
U.S. Dept. of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has indicated that most
unsuccessful juvenile delinquency efforts fail because of
their negative approach
Further, they suggest that “successful delinquency
prevention strategies must be positive in orientation and
comprehensive in scope”
(OJJDP,
2000)
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Promising Practices for Practitioners
Throughout the Juvenile Justice Process
Prevention and Early Intervention:
Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS)
PBIS, a multi-tiered model
that promotes pro-social
skills in youth with and
without disabilities, is an
effective approach to
problem behavior in
schools (Nelson, Sugai, &
Smith, 2005)
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Promising Practices for Practitioners
Throughout the Juvenile Justice Process
Prevention and Early Intervention:
Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS)
Seven Key Components include:
1. An agreed upon and common approach to discipline
2. A positive statement of purpose
3. A small number of positively stated expectations for all
students and staff
4. Procedures for teaching these expectations
5. A continuum of procedures for encouraging displays and
maintenance of these expectations
6. A continuum of procedures for discouraging displays of ruleviolating behavior
7. Procedures for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness
of the discipline system on a regular basis
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Promising Practices for Practitioners
Throughout the Juvenile Justice Process
Prevention and Early Intervention:
Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG)
JAG model includes three program types:
1. School-to-career program for high school seniors
2. Multi-year dropout prevention for grades 9-12
3. Dropout recovery program that targets dropouts and youth
in alternative school settings
The JAG model is comprised of several components including:
(a) classroom instruction from a trained career specialist; (b)
employability skills; (c) adult mentoring, advisement, and
support; (d) summer employment training; (e) student-led
leadership groups; (f) job and postsecondary education
placement; (g) follow-up services; (h) accountability system,
and others.
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Promising Practices for Practitioners
Throughout the Juvenile Justice Process
Prevention and Early Intervention:
Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG)
In 2004, the graduation/GED rate of participants was 90.9
percent and the postsecondary enrollment rate was
41.2%.
(Jobs for America’s Graduates,
2005)
Similarly, in 2005 graduation rates for students with
disabilities and ED were 85.4% and 81.5%,
postsecondary enrollment rates for students with
disabilities and ED were 54.3% and 40.9%,
respectively (Jobs for America’s Graduates, 2007)
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21
Promising Practices: Diversion
“An attempt to divert, or channel out, youthful offenders from the
juvenile justice system” (Bynum & Thompson, 1996)
Alternatives to secure care facilities are important to consider for
nonviolent youthful offenders, those with a small likelihood of
reoffending, and those likely to attend mandatory meetings.
Community based treatments and programs for youth in JJS are
generally more effective than incarceration or residential
placement in reducing recidivism, even for serious and violent
juvenile offenders (Lipsey, Wilson, & Cothern, 2000)
Maintaining youth in the community with appropriate supports
(e.g., family and individual counseling, school-based
interventions, behavioral and social skill interventions) will
allow them to continue to work toward post-school selfsufficiency.
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Promising Practices:
Diversion Programs
Some states are developing a more rehabilitative than
confinement model for youthful offenders.
For non-institutionalized juvenile offenders, certain
variables such as increased length of treatment (e.g.,
interpersonal skills training, individual counseling,
behavioral programs) have a significant positive effect on
recidivism
(Lipsey, Wilson, & Cothern, 2000)
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23
Diversion Programs: Examples
• Missouri has made a commitment to treatment of youth
in small (33 or fewer beds) facilities (Mendel, 2001)
• California Youth Authority:
Small scale residential facilities (rather than training
schools)
 Extensive 24-hour therapy
 Quality education programs
 Heavy family outreach/counseling
 Well qualified, highly-trained staff
 Extensive, non-residential programming and aftercare
support
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Diversion Programs: Family Focused
Family-focused treatments, often including components
such as cognitive-behavior therapy and medication
management, are also effective in assisting non-confined
youth
(Hoagwood et al., 2001)
Strategic family therapy “provides families with tools to
overcome individual and family risk factors through
focused intervention to improve maladaptive patterns of
family interaction and skill-building strategies to
strengthen families” (Center for Family Studies, 2002)
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Diversion Programs: Teen Courts
Approximately 1,109 teen courts currently in existence in
U.S. (National Youth Court Center, 2006)
Typically an option for youth under 16, having no prior
arrest record, and charged with a less serious crime,
teen courts provide a system of graduated sanctions via
a peer jury, including those that go beyond punishments
and include: (a) community service, (b) apology letters,
(c) drug/alcohol classes, (d) restitution, and (e) service in
future teen court cases
Youth may be diverted to teen court at several points in the
juvenile justice process including via law
enforcement/non-law enforcement referral, intake, via
the prosecutor, or as an informal disposition from the
court
(Butts & Buck, 2000)
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Diversion Programs: Teen Courts
Teen courts show promise for
 Decreasing youth recidivism and providing additional
benefits, including
 Youth satisfaction toward the program,
 More positive attitudes concerning procedural justice
and authority, and
 A greater knowledge of the legal system.
However, additional high quality research is needed to
identify critical features of effective programs,
factors/barriers of program success, types of
sanctions that are most effective, and strategies for
youth who do not comply with sanctions.
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Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment
for Non-Institutionalized Juveniles
Multisystemic Therapy (MST) is a treatment for juvenile
offenders that uses a combination of empirically-based
treatments (e.g., cognitive behavior therapy, behavioral
parent training, functional family therapy) to address
multiple variables that have been shown to be factors in
juvenile behavior.
(Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, 2006)
MST is provided at the youth’s home and community
locations and the therapist is available at all times during
the intervention
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Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment
for Non-Institutionalized Juveniles (cont.)
Three key steps for implementation of MST:
• Therapist interviews the youth, family members, friends,
and caring adults to identify problem behaviors and
possible causes;
• Strengths of the youth and supporting people are
identified to assist in addressing problem behaviors;
• Therapist and youth set goals for the treatment.
Review of MST research indicated consistent positive effects for
youth with regard to re-arrest, out of home placement, and
drug use. Additionally, treatment effects were maintained over
time. Cost benefit analyses indicate that MST is associated
with equivalent or better outcomes and costs than
hospitalization.
(Burns, et al., 2000; Sheidow, et al., 2004)
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Intervention for Institutionalized
Juveniles: Academic
One of the most promising research-based options for
approaching student learning and teacher professional
development is the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM)
Two types of interventions are promoted by the SIM model.
First, teacher focused interventions that utilize content
enhancement are designed to assist teachers in
preparing, adapting, and presenting material.
Second, student focused interventions provide learning
strategies in areas such as reading, studying, interacting
with others, and remembering information.
Teacher collaboration or teaming is also supported by
KUCRL.
For more information on the SIM model, please visit http://kucrl.org/
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Intervention for Institutionalized
Juveniles: Career & Technical Education
Youth completing either vocational training or a GED
program while confined are twice as likely to be
employed six months after release
(Black et al., 1996)
Example of a well-developed career-technical education
program:
North Carolina’s Department of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention
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Intervention for Institutionalized
Juveniles: Career & Technical Education
A few characteristics:
VoCATS - competency based, computer supported system
encompassing course and lesson planning, assessment items
as well as aggregated and disaggregated reports of students,
classes, teachers, schools, and LEAs.
Pathways - youth are provided a choice of ten career pathways
(e.g., business technologies, health sciences, industrial
technologies), and are able to identify a specific career area
that is accompanied by a map indicating necessary
coursework, work-based learning opportunities,
postsecondary options, and possible career options.
Youth Apprenticeships - Clear, established plan for
apprenticeships (may need to be modified for the unique
educational and security attributes of juvenile correctional
schools)
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Intervention for Institutionalized
Juveniles: Behavioral Intervention
Attitude held by many in corrections is that confinement
should not be a positive place where appropriate
behaviors are reinforced (Nelson, Sugai, & Smith, 2005)
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports PBIS
approach provides convincing alternative to the
argument for a solely punitive behavioral approach:
Illinois Youth Center (IYC) implemented PBIS at the
Harrisburg boys’ prison in 2001; minor and major
infractions at the school have declined, and fights declined
from 32 per month to zero in three years
Iowa Juvenile Home (IJH) implemented PBIS model as well;
this has led to a reduction in restraint and seclusion by 73
percent and the avg. rate of disciplinary removals reduced
by 50 percent
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Intervention for Institutionalized
Juveniles: Mental Health
Some evidence exists suggesting the following intervention
strategies reduce recidivism and other variables leading
to personal and societal costs caused in part by mental
health problems:
• Counseling, including components of anger
management, social skills training, and career training
• Substance abuse treatment including relapse prevention
• Behavioral/cognitive behavioral approaches to
intervention
(These treatments are shown to be most effective when at
least one year in length, utilizing family involvement, and
including aftercare components such as self-help and
support groups)
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Intervention for Institutionalized
Juveniles: Transition and Aftercare
For successful transition into the workforce and toward selfsufficiency, several preparatory activities need to occur
before the youth is released in the community
Example:
Project SUPPORT (Service Utilization to Promote the
Positive Rehabilitation and Community Transition of
confined Youth with disabilities, Oregon Department of
Education, 1999)
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Intervention for Institutionalized
Juveniles: Transition and Aftercare
Project SUPPORT is structured around tenets identified as
effective for youth with emotional and behavioral
disorders including:
• Strategies to enhance self-determination skills
• Competitive job placement
• Flexible educational opportunities
• Social skill instruction
• Immediate service coordination of wrap-around services
Comprehensive recommendations for assisting in the
transition from long term care facilities also exist - see
list of recommendations of the National Center on
Education, Disability, and Juvenile Justice (EDJJ; see
Rutherford, et al., 2002)
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Intervention for Institutionalized
Juveniles: VA Re-enrollment Regs.
•
“Within two business days of the court’s order of
commitment to the Department of Juvenile Justice, the
student’s probation/parole officer will request the
scholastic record from the school division where the
student was last enrolled.”
Re-enrollment plans
•
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Recommendations from prior and current placements
IEPs
Dates, timelines
School placement upon release
Names and contact information for representatives of
agencies involved
Copies for parents and agencies involved no less than
10 days before release.
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Intervention for Institutionalized
Juveniles: VA Re-enrollment Regs. II
•
The re-enrollment plan shall make it possible for the
student to enroll and receive instruction in the
receiving school district within two school days of
release.
•
After the Department of Juvenile Justice gives notice
of a student’s scheduled release, the student may not
be suspended or expelled from school programs for
the offenses for which he or she was committed.
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38
Summary
•
•
•
•
Programming and services for youth should consider
Federal regulations
Student characteristics
Meeting the needs of at-risk youth or those involved in
the juvenile justice system
 School-Based Preparatory Experiences
 Career Preparation & Work-Based Experiences
 Youth Development & Leadership
 Connecting Activities
 Family Involvement and Supports
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Funded by RSA Grant # H264A080021. © 2014 Marc Gold & Associates
39
Summary (cont.)
I have highlighted several promising practices that will
benefit youth, including:
• Prevention and early intervention
• Diversion programs
• Mental health interventions for non-institutionalized youth
• Interventions for institutionalized youth
 Academic interventions
 Career and technical education
 Behavioral interventions
 Mental health interventions
 Transition and aftercare
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Contact Information
Joseph C. Gagnon, Ph.D.
University of Florida
jgagnon@coe.ufl.edu
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Questions?
Comments?
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Thank You
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Education Credits
CRCC Credit (2.0)
By May 5th participants must score 80% or
better on a online Post Test and submit an
online CRCC Request Form via the MyTACE
Portal.
My TACE Portal: TACEsoutheast.org/myportal
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Southeast TACE Region IV
Toll-free: (866) 518-7750 [voice/tty]
Fax: (404) 541-9002
Web: TACEsoutheast.org
MyTACE Portal: TACEsoutheast.org/myportal
Email: tacesoutheast@law.syr.edu
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Disclaimer
This presentation was developed by the
TACE Center: Region IV © 2014 with funds
from the U.S. Department of Education,
Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA)
under the priority of Technical Assistance and
Continuing Education Projects (TACE) – Grant
#H264A080021. However, the contents of this
presentation do not necessarily represent the
policy of the RSA and you should not assume
endorsement by the Federal Government [34
CFR 75.620 (b)].
TACE Center: Region IV, a project of the Burton Blatt Institute.
Funded by RSA Grant # H264A080021. © 2014 Marc Gold & Associates