Lookout Mountain Youth Correctional Facility

A difficult challenge to the juvenile justice system and child welfare system is working with adolescents with comorbid difficulties, causing these adolescents to becoming at risk for incarceration and involvement with the juvenile and adult justice system. The juvenile justice system appears to be having a challenging time in determining how to respond and treat adolescents with mental health and substance use. "Many

The juvenile justice system faces a significant challenge in identifying and responding to the psychiatric disorders of detained youth because research has shown that it is difficult to define the best means to use and enhance the scarce mental health resources (Kessler & Kraus, 2007). According to Cocozza and Skowyra (2000) “Children’s and adolescents’ mental health needs have historically been addressed inadequately in policy, practice, and research and have only the number of youth with mental illness and their level of unmet needs recognized” (p 4). Furthermore, that the juvenile justice system has gone from treatment and rehabilitation to retribution and punishment, that the prevalence is

Treatments include but are not limited to: “Brand name” family therapies, diversion, probation, or residential placement. These treatments that youths complete are key to saving money in the future due to reducing the need for future incarceration and the costs that come with it.

The need for the Jail Diversion Program arises from the increasing number of mental health problems among the jail population in the United States. According to Bell, Decker, & Sullivan (2013), 64 percent of the adults incarcerated in the US prisons in

Juvenile justice settings, especially in Texas, were not designed as sites for comprehensive psychological and psychiatric treatment of adolescents’ mental disorders. On national, state, and local levels there has been a major increase in the interest of mental health needs within the juvenile justice system. Evidence-based research and data has become more available with societies interest into this matter. A continuous struggle with Texas policymakers and officials is identifying and properly treating mentally ill juveniles and keeping them out of the justice system. Acknowledging established data and comparing it to current Texas mandates helps seek recommendations for improvement within all levels and jurisdictions of the Texas juvenile justice system.

As you well know Sara had family in Davenport. Her first cousins already lived there. From an article about Sara’s family, her relative was a laborer of some kind. According to Root’s Web, John was also a laborer. John and Sara could have stayed in New York when they came to America and found work there, but Sara’s relative could have offered or been able to help John get a job. Sara held a job of a wash woman while living in Davenport and at age 16 Michael worked in a saw mill. The other children also held various jobs. Ellen who was going by Nellie during this time worked as a coater and a candy maker. Edward would later in life work at the Rock Island arsenal which when John and Sara first moved to Davenport was a prison for confederate soldiers.

Established in the 1970’s, Scared Straight programs began to get introduced throughout the United States as a method of deterrence for young teens in an attempted to keep them out of jail. A normal program usually consists of an at-risk teen visiting an adult prison to find out what it was really like to be placed somewhere they are unable to leave. The teen learns of the harsh conditions that real prison inmates have to endure while behind bars. Facility managers set up an itinerary for the teens to follow as they tour the jail and live as though they were prisoners for a full day. This would put the at-risk youths up against an aggressive ‘in your face’ confrontation with the inmates. They would get to listen to the inmate's stories and have a one on one counseling session to really hit home on how the next few years are going to be determined after they leave. However, no matter how well the intentions may be to attempt and rehabilitate the teens, research has shown that many of approaches proved ineffective.

Legacy Treatment Services is a nonprofit organization which employs over 700 employees and offers programs to 13 counties throughout New Jersey (Legacy Treatment Services, 2016). It should be noted that there are 21 counties in the state of NJ, which are served by different organizations, like Oaks Integrated Care. This organizations mission is to support and change behavioral health and social service outcomes. Legacy Treatment Services is the product of a mergence between The Drenk Center and The Children’s Home. This paper will focus primarily on the Adolescent Residential Services Division which provides housing, schooling, therapy, psychiatric services, and life skills training to children who reside

Wilderness therapy as a Theoretical Modality is a growing treatment modality for at-risk adolescents who require out-of-home-care. Some of the issues facing these children present a variety of clinical concerns. Attention needs to be paid to address the ethical issues for mental health professionals and patients alike. A few of these concerns are confidentiality and consent, therapeutic boundaries, proper training of staff, and safety of clients to name a few.

1 in 10 children, aged 5 - 16 suffer from a clinically diagnosed mental health disorder, equivalent to three children in every class (Green et al, 2005). This does not include the 1 in 7 children that suffer from less severe mental health problems (Department for Education, 2015). Any mental health issue can lead a young person to lose control over their body and mind. This can lead to abnormal behaviour, criminal actions and uncontrollable urges to harm others (Sue et al, 2015). 95% of imprisoned young offenders have a mental health disorder and many of them are struggling with more than one disorder (Office for National Statistics,

Wingate Wilderness Therapy is a highly praised program, selected by parents as a substitute to Boot Camps for juveniles. This camp is set in Utah, and the staff members have plenty of experience with the therapy programs and they know how to handle and young criminals and youthful offenders that are over the age of eighteen. The Wingate Wilderness Therapy camp is acknowledged as one of the leading therapeutic transitional living programs and they will make a positive impact on a juvenile or young adult’s bad conduct and performance. This will be accomplished by using old fashion therapy and education, not yelling and screaming.

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.

Although the prevalence of PTSD in the general population of youth ranges from 6.3 percent to 10.3 percent (Giaconia et al., 1995; Kessler et al., 1995), the estimated prevalence of PTSD among youth in the juvenile justice system vary considerably, but ranges from 4.8 to 48.9 percent (Wasserman et al., 2002; Steiner, Garcia, and Matthews, 1997; Burton et al., 1994; Cauffman et al., 1998; Duclos et al., 1998). Some of the estimates of PTSD are 2.3 percent among Native American male detainees (Duclos et al., 1998); 4.8 percent among male youth in residential facility (Wasserman et al., 2002); 24.2 percent among male juvenile felons in detention (Burton et al., 1994); and 32.3 percent among incarcerated male teens (Steiner, Garcia, and Matthews,

2. The characteristics and backgrounds of the people served by this program are diverse populations, underserved, at-risk adolescents and delinquent juveniles between the ages of 11 and 18 including their families. These individuals lacked resources, were a challenge to help, and appeared unmotivated to change. A common factor these underserved populations held together were upon entrance to social services individuals expressed emotions of anger, hopelessness, and resistance to treatment.

Alternative programs for youth were developed for mild and less serious delinquents. Over the years, the program has seen a surge in electronic home monitoring, community intensive supervision programs which service serious offenders in addition to minor cases. At times, group homes may house repeated youth offenders. Regardless of the placement, 24-hour supervision is provided in a unique way.