Deadline: "Get Tough" Programs for Juveniles Don't Work

"Get Tough" Programs for Juveniles Don't Work

An interesting article in the Times today, claims that these "get tough" programs for at risk youth simply do not work. "Laws transferring juveniles into the adult court system lead these teenagers to commit more violence." What does work, however, is a great deal of counseling.

This makes me question the reasoning behind putting adults in maximum or medium security prisons, without any programs available to them--without any effort for serious and well-considered rehabilitation. Maybe it's because there’s a mentality that by the time adults are convicted of crimes they're so hardened and 'criminal' that nothing will help.

The trouble with boot camps, group detention centers and other "get tough" programs is that they bring together young people who are inclined toward violence and teach one another how to commit more crime, the panel said. "The more sophisticated instruct the more naive in precisely the behaviors that the intervener wishes to prevent."

"All the evaluations have shown they don't work," said the panel's chairman, Dr. Robert L. Johnson of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. "Many communities are wasting a great deal of money on those types of programs."

Posted by katherine at 12:25 PM

Comments

I agree with you Katherine with regard to the close minded approach to so-called rehabilitation for adult offenders.
This is an entrenched method that will take a long time to rework.

However, the article about dealing with juvenile offenders reminded me of a successful rehabilitation method used in New Zealand and Australia. The method is called "Juvenile Conferencing" it involves the offender, a police officer, a Department of Justice juvenile justice officer and the victim getting together and deciding on a form of reparation and consequence for the offence that is acceptable to all.
I guess these more flexible approaches to rehabilitation work best with those who are not already embedded in the prison system. Thus conferencing is typically used for minor offences. From all accounts the approach is very successful. When used in remote communities with a high indigenous population community elders are brought in to partcipate. However questions remain about the cultural appropriateness of the conference format e.g. the interpretation of eye contact or lack of - mean very different things to the indigenous community and the white community. I still think it's a pretty innovative method and hope it can work through these glitches.

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