Alternative Juvenile Placements : Alternative Programs For Youth

Residential care and education for juvenile care has been a topic that has experienced limited research. Much research has been conducted on topics such as what motivates kids, points systems in programs, grades of students, and deflated reading and math score of juveniles in residential care. During residential care, a lot of emphasis is placed on behaviors, function of the behavior, and accountability of behaviors. This attention is carried over to the education, as secured placements will often provide secured education facilities that are certified as Alternative Education Centers. The issue that has become prevalent is the lack of grade appropriate instruction in secured facilities to match that of the public schools.

Punishment has evolved from the days of waiting to be hung to the sophisticated prison systems of today. However prisons in the United States are crowded and costly and they are not always appropriate for all offenders, especially those that have committed minor offenses. In the last couple of decades new methods of punishment has been developed for the minor offender. These fall under the category of intermediate community sanction and consist of electronic monitoring and home confinement. These punishments have proven very useful in dealing with minor offenders, pretrial confinement and others in need of supervision. They seem to be effective and help to transfer some of the cost of prison back to the offender.

According to Corrections Today, day reporting centers are facilities utilized in rehabilitating mostly offenders on probation, in providing assistance in counseling and social skills on a daily basis. The day reporting center is an intermediate sanction that is cost effective and serves as a punishment to the offender in a rehabilitative manner as well as displaying safety to the public (Siegel & Bartollas, 2014). The day reporting centers are a different method in rehabilitating and educating offenders versus historical methods of punishment imposed on people. In conjunction with day reporting centers, electric monitoring home detention programs were utilized in the 1980's and are increasing as both are intermediate sanctions (Sudipto & Barton, 2006).

America cannot afford to continue incarcerating nonviolent criminals. Why reward offenders with food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and treatment programs at the taxpayers ' expense? Community supervision programs that require offenders to work to support themselves and their families make better sense. In addition, offenders should pay supervision fees, restitution to victims and court costs. Further, offenders on community supervision could utilize to addiction treatment programs and mental health services to avoid re-offending. Community supervision offers an excellent alternative to the high cost of incarceration while shifting the financial burden to the offender.

The available empirical evidence suggests that intensive supervision programs have not reduced the rates of re-offending (Paparozzi & Gendreau, 2005). This is partly due to the fact that these programs often target low-risk offenders, contrary to the research which suggests that high-risk offenders are most likely to benefit from intensive institutional and community-based correctional interventions (Paparozzi & Gendreau, 2005). I would like to note that although this may sound contradicting to what I have written prior about high-risk offenders, the program I am working with in Yorkton is geared towards high-risk offenders and that the research that I have found claims it is not. Even though there is research that suggests this, since I have started in the program, I have seen some major transformation with individuals. I did, however, find some evidence that this program has been effective. A 1998 report found considerable evidence to support the premise that a period of supervised transition from prison to the community enhances public safety and the rehabilitation of offenders. In particular, the process of selection for parole based on the assessment of risk to re-offend and

Spectrum portrays a wonderful treatment plan and environment for these young enrollees to develop into adulthood for a brighter future for themselves. The program provides minors with supervision, guidance, and education which allows the juvenile to gain life skills, knowledge, and growth. Help young men realize it is more to life than the criminal lifestyle they once knew. So, it seems the program tries to provide the services it claims for the juvenile delinquents in the treatment center. Spectrum wants to reduce recidivism as much as possible by concentrating on the central problems from previous criminal behavior. Each youth will have the chance to become involved with group, family, and individual therapy to rearrange their adverse conduct and help boys develop into mature young men.

These include probation, foster homes, group homes or more restricted placements such as such as detention centers and forestry camps. Probation would fall into supervised release which also includes electronic monitoring, reporting centers. The large number of different types of rehabilitative programs and staff is demanded by the diverse population of juveniles, which require different

Monday, June 19, 2017 at 10:32 am, I was contacted by Juvenile Services at the Jefferson County Court House and requested to come to their office. Shannon a Juvenile Services case worker advised me she had a minor named Robert Cuevas in her office, and he wanted to make a statement in regards to a theft he was a suspect in (17-5089).

Over the past 20 years the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) purpose has been supporting the Annie E Casey Foundation’s vision that all adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system have the opportunities to develop into healthy, productive adults. The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) is a juvenile detention reform, that has safely reduced reliance on secure detention. The JDAI purpose is to promote changes to policies, practices and promote programs that will decrease the number of adolescents and racial disparities or bias, that are unnecessarily detained, to basically improve the juvenile system overall (Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative. (n.d.).

Once youth is committed a crime he or she must face the criminal justice. Whether it is simple face to face contact with the police officer or trip to juvenile facility, juvenile is becoming part of the criminal justice system. For many youth it is their first contact with the justice system however for some others it is a very familiar process. So once juvenile is making face to face contact with the police officers, his life is in the hands of that officer who can make very important and sometime life changing decision for that youth. It is up to that officer to determine whether the youth will be headed to the juvenile facilities or straight home. The difference between youth and adults crimes, is that with adult crime, police officers don’t have much of discretion to whether arrest or not that offender. Majority of the time they follow certain guidelines and laws. With juvenile justice system, officers have more freedom to make that decision. However officers do not just have a discretion whether to arrest juvenile or let him go, they also can impact juvenile’s court decisions after he or she are arrested.

In the past several years researchers have found intervention strategies and program models that hope to prevent juvenile delinquency and promote good social attitudes and development (Greenwood, 2008). More than 1,000,000 adolescents go through the American Criminal court system every year and of those approximately 160,000 juvenile offenders are sent to juvenile placement centers (Henggeler & Schoenwald, 2011). The U.S. criminal justice system has been wise enough to realize that treatment programs need to be implemented in order to lessen recidivism in these young offenders and help ensure that they go on to live healthy productive lives.

There is a program that is sponsored by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department located in San Bernardino, California called the Juvenile Intervention Program or JIP for short. The program was designed in 2001 by the encouragement of the community leaders of San Bernardino with the emphasis to show troubled teens the reality of incarceration. Juveniles have misconceptions about what life in jail is truly like (Department, 2018).What gained my interest was that the Sheriff’s department would introduce the juveniles to the damaging effects of high-speed police pursuits, gang violence, and drive-by shootings. The juveniles would witness the after-effects of each of these events and the consequences of the delinquencies.

Virginia, I agree that it is wonderful how the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative has helped the juveniles. Although the admission to the detention has reduced to 50%, because of this percentage a juvenile is less likely to complete high school and we not be able to find employment. However, I am impressed with the HOMEBOY Industries in how they implement programs to ex-gang members which initially gives them a second chance. Nevertheless, this organization focus in the area that is of great importance such as, counseling, education, job training. Therefore I believe that this program should be executed in our major large city to assist ex-gang members in becoming a productive citizen. Thanks for giving your observation about this topic.

My placement took place in an open custody and detention center for young women. Working with youth is an interesting and overall very rewarding experience. No day is alike and problems vary from clothing issues to serious family situations. As a frontline youth worker it is your duty to help and guide youth through these very tough situations.

Community outreach such community supervisions for probation and parole is important. Prisons, psychiatric hospitals, or other community based housing also help when an individual can’t be in their own home after being convicted of a crime. According to the National Institute of Justice, about 495,000 of the 750,000 prisoners who will be released this year are likely to be rearrested within three years. With effective programs, we could reduce the number of repeat offenders by nearly 100,000. Pertisiila, J. (2011, November 03). Each year, the IDOC releases over 20,000 offenders back into their communities. Their goal is to prepare offenders to lead productive lives and equip them to integrate back into society, while still ensuring that public safety remains a top priority. Partnering with communities on the vital issue of