Juvenile Corrections
Correctional options
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Probation
Intensive probation
Day treatment
Group homes
Wilderness programs
Foster care
Shelter care
Correctional options
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Boot camps
House arrest/home detention
Electronic monitoring
Restitution/community service
Residential: state and private
Legal issues
Treatment
Community corrections
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Probation
Differs from adult system in terms of:
Indeterminate nature
Use of formal and informal probation (not
allowed with adults)
• Use of probation with status offenses
• Greater role at earlier stages of the process
Probation organization
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Administered by:
Centralized statewide system
County or city, partial state
Combined—largest city has its own, state
runs the rest
• Locally and judicially administered
(traditional—about 60% are administered
this way)
Probation
• Debate about organization
• Administered locally and judicially:
advantages are (1) prestige of judges
• (2) judicial immunity for officers
• (3) flexible, more discretion
• (4) better cooperation between officers and
judges
Probation
• Statewide:
• (1) more uniformity of services, less
political allocation of funds based on
judge’s clout
• Overall standards and training, better
dissemination of information
• Set up for services
Probation
• National advisory Commission suggested
that probation should be state run, but with
juvenile intake officers under court
administration
• Training and education of juvenile
probation officers
• Conditions of probation: reasonable,
relevant and constitutional
Probation programs
• Intensive supervision
• Classification into levels of supervision, use
of risk factors
• Avoidance of net widening
• Appear to be as effective as residential
treatment at less cost
Probation programs
• Home detention, house arrest
• “passive system” home is called
periodically, youth must be there (some
systems relatively sophisticated
• More likely to be used if parents are
perceived as cooperative
• “active system: electronic monitoring (EM)
Probation programs
• Recidivism rates similar to those of
residential programs, costs are significantly
less, reduces residential overcrowding
• Felony offenders, substance abusers and
repeat offenders did more poorly with EM
• The longer the sentence, failure more likely
Probation programs
• Wilderness/Outward Bound programs
• Strip them from city environment, physical
and psychological challenges;
confrontational style
• VisionQuest, (wagon trains) Associated
Marine Institutes
• Short term reductions in recidivism among
well run programs
Probation programs
• Day treatment
• Structured activities during the day, return
to home during the evening
• Cheaper than residential, works well if the
family is not too dysfunctional
Foster care
• Family paid by the state to board an abused,
status offender, or delinquent child
• Often from lower class deprived families,
chaotic environment
• Parents may be mentally ill, addicts, or in
prison, likely to have been abuse and
neglect
Foster care
• Those who are a threat to others,
incorrigible, or antisocial runaways do not
do well in foster care
• Foster homes must be licensed—adequate
space, nutritious meals, good reputation in
the community
Problems of foster parents
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Frequent crises
Dealing with the biological parent
Older children may be out of control
Most suffering from emotional problems
Might treat foster children differently from
their own, creating conflicts
• Some foster parents not well trained;
become punitive
Foster parents
• Foster parents might become attached, find
it difficult to give a child up
• Foster care is difficult to monitor
• Sometime it could be avoided if other
services were available (homemaker,
daycare, etc, treatment facilities that allow
children)
• Foster children display more problems
Boot camps
• Combine boot camp drill and education,
substance abuse treatment, social skills
training
• Short term improvements in personality
measures, less antisocial, educational levels
• Little effect on recidivism
• Might reduce overcrowding, costs (if net
widening is avoided)
Restitution/community service
• Rehabilitative, restitution provides
compensation to victims, saves money
• Community service also might be
rehabilitative, provides services to
community that otherwise might not be
available
• Most orders are completed, recidivism a
little lower
Group homes
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Non-secure structured residences
Public and private
Halfway-in, halfway out
Usually around 12 youths
Residents: most are 16-18, more likely to
be middle class, status offenders or property
offenders, multiple family problems
Group homes
• Family group home vs. staffed group home,
or combination
• Group homes somewhat selective
• Vary in terms of population (some take
certain types of youths), length of stay,
screening, treatment, staffing and physical
facility
Group homes
• Youths are in school. Some large group
homes have their own school
• In most instances, youths attend a local
school. A criteria for admittance is often
whether the youth can behave in school
• Group homes in Massachusetts
Group homes
• Highfields projects: lower recidivism rates,
concluded that it was as effective as a
training school, and less expensive to
operate
• Silverlake experiment: compared group
home attendees, one group received GGI,
the other did not. Both groups showed
declines in delinquency
Group homes
• Project New Pride: emphasis on academic
skills and vocational training
• Successful programs:
• Address a variety of skills
• Have intensive contacts (group therapy)
• Socially grounded approach