Wanted to return to these posts by DougJ and John Cole because juvenile justice is one area where really positive things are happening.
Slowly.
First, the boot camp, get-tough approach endorsed and promoted by George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and a host of others has been completely discredited and is the process of being scrapped.
Thankfully.
Terrible ideas eventually die, it just takes a long time.
Then there’s the Missouri Model:
Juvenile justice experts across the nation say that the approach, known as the Missouri Model, is one of several promising reform movements that strapped states are trying to reduce the costly confinement of youths. California, which spends more than $200,000 a year on each incarcerated juvenile, reallocated $93 million in prison expenses by reducing state confinement.
There is no barbed wire around facilities like Missouri Hills, on the outskirts of St. Louis. No more than 10 youths and 2 adults called facilitators live in cottage-style dormitories in a wooded setting, a far cry from the quasi penitentiaries in other states. When someone becomes unruly, the other youths are trained to talk him down. Perhaps most impressive, Missouri has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the country.
It’s happening all over the country, but here’s New York
The Bloomberg administration plans to merge the city’s Department of Juvenile Justice into its child welfare agency, signaling a more therapeutic approach toward delinquency that will send fewer of the city’s troubled teenagers to jail.
Gov. David A. Paterson introduced legislation on Wednesday to begin overhauling New York’s troubled juvenile prison system, in what aides described at a first step toward broader changes long sought by critics of the system. The legislation would prohibit judges from placing youths in state juvenile prisons unless they had been found guilty of a violent felony or a sex crime or a judge had determined that a youth posed a significant risk to themselves or others. Such a move would set the stage to significantly shrink the number of youths in state custody.
This isn’t a cure-all. The single worst case of abuse I’ve seen occurred when a juvenile was detained at a “family atmosphere” private group home, not in a detention center, but the approach has to change, and it’s changing.
More reading on reforming juvenile justice here.
If anyone has a personal experience in or with or around the juvenile justice system, I would be interested in hearing about that. Just drop it in the comments. No names. Of course.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
Thanks for this post. I am very glad to hear of what Bloomberg and Paterson are doing.
JDC
What do you want to know?
Will
Fresh out of grad school, I worked for an adjudicated youth wilderness program. Not really “boot camp” but with some similarities in the physical aspect. Our approach was from a counseling/team building/self discovery view with a caring attitude, rather than a punitive/sadistic “boot camp” model (I’ve been through actual military bootcamp…bunch of asshole DIs). This was all the rage in the late 90s/early 00s, and the recidivism rates were very low compared to kids who were not in the program. 14-18yr olds, male and female groups, living in the woods for 60 days continuously and moving from water source to water source cross country, no trails.
We often had kids in rival gangs in the same group, and were trying to teach a HS level natural sciences curriculum in addition to all the counseling, survival/primitive skills (every fire was made with a bow-drill set, can’t get a fire with your primitive gear…we eat cold), etc. The hardest and most rewarding job I’ve ever had…too bad it paid below min wage…think I was making $75 a day and that’s for about 16hrs day and “on call” 24/7 (we’re living in the woods in sleeping bags and a tarp, you’re only sort of “off” once the kids are asleep for the night..if nobody decides to “pull a runner”). 8days on/6off, staff rotated but the kids were in the field 60 straight. We’d get within 3-5 xc miles from a jeep track at staff exchange day and
hike in.
Great programs all in all. But there have been several deaths, typically from dehydration, and in fact one of our major items everyday was making sure enough fluids were consumed. We’d make them drink a half liter before leaving their sleeping bags in the a.m., stop and make everyone drink a liter mid hike, etc. There have been a few mutiny events, and too many deaths (the co. I worked for eventually folded after a kid died from untreated staph infection). But the basics…strip away all the BS of society, put demands of meeting basic necessities (food/shelter) on people and it will both get to the nub of their problems, and teach them about teamwork, humility, etc, was a very effective program. Getting long, but there’s one data point.
stuckinred
Colin Powell was yammering on about boot camp as a model for education this morning. All that shit did for me was make me a more physically fit delinquent who knew more about an M-14! His wife also said “all the dropouts end up in jail”. That’s Dr. Dropout to you lady!
Lavocat
This is partly what I do for a living. In NYS, this area is starkly divided between the pre-Tryon era and the post-Tryon era.
Overall, NYS is moving out of the dark ages, just like the rest of the country. However, one of my HUGEST pet peeves about the system is this: only in NYS (and, I believe North Carolina), do minors become “adults” at the age of sixteen for purposes of the criminal justice system. In all other jurisdictions, the age of majority – for criminal purposes – is eighteen.
People might think this makes little difference, since we’re only dealing with a period of two years. But, think how mature you were at 16 versus 18. I think it’s a world of difference.
However, to its credit, NYS is the only state in the union that forces parents to pay support until the children become 21 or are otherwise emancipated (all other states stop at 18).
I’ve got to tell you that one of the most gratifying jobs in the world is guiding children safely through the legal system for their own health and safety. Like teachers, I get to sculpt the future – and get paid for it!
Kay
@Lavocat:
We’re moving towards mediation in Ohio, for unruly and truants.
The kids retain the right to a court process, they just move through mediation first.
I had the training, and I try it out Thursday. I loved the kumbayah aspects of training, but I’m sure the practical reality will be less huggy :)
stuckinred
@Lavocat: I was given the choice between the Army and jail on my 17th birthday, the first day I could legally be inducted. I the rear-view mirror I see how ridiculous it was for someone as immature as I was to be allowed in the military but it was a shooting war and, obviously, they were not very choosy.
Xboxershorts
I love the idea of training the other residents to bring the hyped up ones down. I have a neighbor who brought troubled teens into his home to try and help. The young boy has issues with getting hyped up and the neighbor, in his 50’s, just isn’t in the same trusted bracket as the kids own peer group and was unable to “bring the kid down”.
stuckinred
@Will: Hoods in the Woods!
Kay
@Will:
One problem with it is I don’t like them shipped so far. It’s just a disaster for them when they don’t see someone they know. They need a close-in advocate, whether it’s a family member or whomever. I try to keep “mine” in-county. I’ll do just about anything to avoid shipping them off.
It’s like they disappear, and that makes me very nervous.
Martin
See, this should be in good government fridays.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Living in Misery, I’m shocked that we’d do anything like this.
I mean we’ve spent the last ten years vying with Texas for the title of National Laboratory For Bad Government. And that usually entails adopting the model “build prisons, not schools”.
stuckinred
Meanwhile, the governor of Georgia wants the UGA football team to get serious about winning!
kay
@Martin:
I didn’t even know there was a good government Friday, Martin :)
This is starting to remind me of my school experience. “I didn’t even know….” fill in the blank.
JPL
@stuckinred: It’s sad when the governor shows more concern about UGA football than he does the 10% unemployed.
stuckinred
@JPL: That’s Gubbiner Moonpie to you bub!
JPL
The state of GA seems more concerned about trying juveniles as adults than they do reform.
Cat
I’m shockingly thankful I committed my felonies in the 80’s, had a lawyer, and was in college.
The judge even made a favorable comment about me being in college and I was allowed to leave the county to attend college while on probation.
I’m not sure today I’d still be charged as a juvenile or given probation. It would have been prison for me I’m sure. I’d have gone from a benefit to society to a liability based purely on the era I committed my crimes.
Just Some Fuckhead
What ever happened to the NAMBLA model they used when I was a kid?
Lavocat
@ Kay: I am a firm believer in mediation – so long as the mediators are thoroughly trained. I think many attorneys see mediation as a supreme waste of time, but I do not.
Well-conducted mediation would not only help most litigants but it would very likely clear court dockets – which most overworked attorneys and judges would love!
Very often, human beings merely want sounding boards – they just want you to LISTEN to them for a few minutes and try to see things THEIR way. It’s called empathy, yet it seems to be a dirty words nowadays.
I ask my clients all the time: “What do you want out of all this?” I guide them through each step of the process, giving them as many options as I can.
Most of the time, my clients (all children) are amazed that an adult is taking the time to treat them as an adult and give them a variety of choices, commenting on the pros and cons of each option.
Most kids (like most adults), if given the choice, will choose to do the right thing. The problem is that they so often come from such horribly dysfunctional backgrounds that it is very difficult to grasp what “doing the right thing” is.
My actions as an attorney are meaningless if they are not tempered by compassion. I very often think “there but for the grace of god go I”.
My motto is a simple one: “changing the future, one kid at a time.”
As I stated, my work is extremely gratifying.
JGabriel
Kay @ Top:
I don’t want argue with this because I want it to be true, but I’m gonna have hard time believing it until people stop publishing Ayn Rand.
.
Ruckus
@Lavocat:
Most of the time, my clients (all children) are amazed that an adult is taking the time to treat them as an adult and give them a variety of choices, commenting on the pros and cons of each option.
I find that a lot of adults are amazed to be treated this way as well.
Jager
When I was in the 7th grade (pre-historic times, as I’m an aging boomer) there was a kid doing his 2nd year in the 7th. Norm wasn’t dumb he was just waiting to turn 16 and drop out. Norm had commited a pile of non-violent crimes, shop lifting, stealing tires and hubcaps (see I am old) just generally raising hell. Norm stepped up to car theft and was sent off to the State Training School for Boys. My grandfather was a County Judge and I asked him what was going to happen to Norm. Gramps said, “pretty much go to school, work on the school farm, play sports, go to bed early, get up early and mind his manners”. Grandpa added that Norm wouldn’t have time to get in trouble because for the first time in his life he was going to be really busy, busy all the time. Norm was released when were were in the 10th grade, he was up to date in school, he had become a hellacious football player, he had a great attitude. Norm graduated with our class, went on to college and recently retired as a youth probation officer. Norm told me at a HS class reunion that the SSB saved his life. The teachers were good and non-judgemental, the discipline was strict but fair, they had some good vacational programs and decent counselors, mainly he said he was so busy he didn’t have the time or the energy to get into trouble!
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
Sometimes, though, the family is the problem. My nephew is at a psychiatric school in Montana right now (he’s most likely bipolar like his dad) and doing really, really well because he’s been taken out of his home environment and put into a new situation with great counselors. My in-laws are out visiting him right now and he actually scolded them a little because he’s been working his butt off to get better and they haven’t changed at all.
He’ll probably graduate late next year and we’re really not sure what he’ll do then. If he goes back to the same family situation, he’ll end up the same way he was before he left and he doesn’t want that to happen.
So going away to a new place with caring people is not necessarily the end of the world, especially if your home situation already sucks.
earthmother
if you want to see a system that has been completely transformed from a horrible, correctional system (in 2005) to a fully therapeutic model (today, 2010) based on the Missouri Model, check out the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice, http://www.ojj.la.gov
Wonders have happened in a fairly short time. Visit the website and see OJJ In the News and About Us/History of Juvenile Justice in LA
Phritz
Thank you for this, Kay. This country has so many giant institutions that are crumbling and unsustainable in their present form; our penal system might be the worst of all. It’s actually quite heartening to see states actually trying to enact real reform; I’m sad to say that I’m actually surprised the political will was there.
13th Generation
And this post gets less than 30 responses, yet the open thread football or GG Firebagger bashing threads get several hundred.
I admire your persistance Kay, and I’ve been trying to tell people for years that our prison system is just fucking ridiculous and a huge waste of money (200k per juvenile in CA?!).
I expect more from the commenters on this blog, or at least I used to.
WereBear
I used to read about an extraordinary counseling approach that reduced recidivism; it would take a bit of googling and I’m not up for it now; but it was based on what the psychologist called the criminal mindset; these people had only learned criminal solutions to their problems, and in a series of group encounters, they were guided to discovering non criminal solutions.
These was for adults; I can be sure a similar approach would work even better for juveniles. While poor upbringing is not exclusive to any social class, the working poor and outright poor have a double whammy when this occurs; there is simply no cushion for screwing up, and nowhere to learn otherwise.
We are wasting our youth and our adult talent; we are throwing away people who have so much to give. This is one of the things I find so unconscionable about the present state of our Republican diluted civilization; someone like me has lived with far fewer advantages, and far more crises, than I would have in a more forgiving and supportive environment; but others, with ever more challenges, have outright fallen into the cracks, and been crushed.
Nancy
This is the area I work in professionally. And one process we have taken on in this community is the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Its working to keep kids out of detention, but there are huge political fights still underway. These systems don’t change easily!
Wim
I had some experience with Missouri’s juvenile justice system (I manfully resist putting justice in scare quotes) in its bad old days and all I can say is thank goodness that the Feds passed a law in ’72 or ’73 that mandated the separation of criminal from status offenders. I ran off from foster care and got locked up in the State Training School for Boys as a recidivist runaway. I don’t know if this the same Training School that someone previously in comments spoke glowingly of as a place for school, sports, and agriculture. My first day out of segregation I saw a kid I came in with get shanked in the shower. There was constant violence from the staff upon the students, and from the students upon one another. They threw my ass in the Hole for a month because I wouldn’t testify about the second fatal stabbing I saw there, and the day I got out the whole place was gripped in the mad and deadly chaos of what they later termed a ‘race riot.’
Shortly thereafter I was transferred to a program with the laudable aim of reintegrating me with society. It made no sense at all to me at the time, seemingly so desperately random. It was only another thirty years before I was poking around on the Internet and discovered they’d been compelled to remove status offenders like myself from the system.
It wasn’t anything like nobility or common sense that made Missouri adopt its ‘Smaller Is Better’ model of juvenile corrections. It was a judge threatening to throw high-level functionaries in jail for refusing to correct grave deficiencies in staffing and child protection. This threat scared them enough to have a sit-down without agency lawyers present to stop them, and by this cosmic fluke Missouri ended up with a system that works well enough to be a model for the nation. If it had ever been a political decision, rest assured, Missouri would still be a horrific snake-pit of violent coercion and and woe.
What isn’t being mentioned in this discussion is that Missouri has a shadow system of juvenile corrections. State law specifically prohibits any interference with schools run exclusively by religious organizations. No one knows (because there’s no registry, and indeed no requirement for licensing) how many religious boot camps there are scattered throughout the state. Virtually all that have ever risen to public consciousness have done so because kids ended up dying. This led to an amendment in the law that the schools have to make their corrections policy known to parents. Because, otherwise, the parents would be all ‘Gee, how were we supposed to know?’ when their kids ended up beaten to death. Nearly all of these places prominently stress their belief in the efficacy (and Biblical sanction) of corporal punishment. Look up Mountain Park Academy near Patterson, MO for a representative example.
If you’re a minor in Missouri, better hope that if you get into trouble, you get into trouble with the law. If you get into trouble with your parents, you’re likely to end up in a place like Mountain Park. You’d have been better off in the old Training School.
Mnemosyne
@WereBear:
G was on a jury one time and he was blown away that the guy (or his friend, I can’t remember) testified that he needed some money, so he went out and stole this woman’s purse. It literally never occurred to the guy to, say, try to get a job. It was just, “I need some money, better go punch someone in the face to get some.”
So I could see a program like that helping someone like that whose first instinct might be to do what they know best.
Phoebe
@Wim: Oh. Hey. You were a foster kid in MO? I have a foster kid in MO, I mean, I’m the foster parent. I got her after she ran away for the summer. I’ve had her since August. I would love to talk to someone, ideally for her to talk to someone, who was in foster care and came out being able to write such a well put comment, which is all I know about you, but it’s more than enough for me. I hope this isn’t flag-this-post stalkery bad/wrong, but I am kind of desperate. Anyway, if you want to be a Good Example for my imp, please contact me by email: [email protected]
Thank you.
Kay: Thank you for this post. It makes me happy. I, like the agenda of rage, am amazed that it happened in our state.
KSinMA
@Ruckus: You and Lavocat are so right.