Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Public Sector Gulags => Topic started by: Ursus on February 16, 2009, 06:32:06 PM
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Juvenile justice services take a hit (http://http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081227/NEWS03/812270358)
Tennessee and other cash-strapped states cut rehab programs, lock kids up
By Jim Davenport • ASSOCIATED PRESS • December 27, 2008
State budget cuts are forcing some of the nation's youngest criminals out of counseling programs and group homes and into juvenile prisons in what critics contend is a shortsighted move that will eventually lead to more crime and higher costs.
Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia are among the states that have slashed juvenile justice spending — in some cases more than 20 percent — because of slumping tax collections. Youth advocates say they expect the recession will bring more cuts next year in other states, hitting programs that try to rehabilitate children rather than simply locking them up.
"If you raise a child in prison, you're going to raise a convict," said South Carolina Juvenile Justice Director Bill Byars, credited with turning around a system once better known for warehousing children than counseling them and teaching them life skills.
Now, he's been asked to draw up plans to trim an additional 15 percent from a juvenile justice budget already cut $23 million, or 20 percent, since June as part of the state's effort to pare $1 billion from its $7 billion budget.
Dawn Deaner, a Metro Nashville public defender, expressed concerns similar to Byars' recently, when The Tennessean reported that the number of juveniles transferred to adult court in Davidson County this year — an expected 60 — is poised to top 2007 levels by about 50 percent.
"What good does it do to send a 16-year-old to the penitentiary on a robbery charge?" Deaner said. "To me, it doesn't do any good. He'll come back worse off than he went in."
Juvenile crime is up in Nashville, where prosecutors plan to consider moving more juveniles into the adult system for serious or nonviolent felonies such as home invasions or selling drugs on school property.
Prosecutor Kathy Morante said she is tired of seeing the same offenders return to Juvenile Court just months after being locked up by the Department of Children's Services and then quickly released.
Tennessee has cut grants for juvenile programs by $1.7 million, or 26 percent, which affects after-school programs, truancy prevention and child and family interventions. More cuts are expected.
Reform efforts suffer
In South Carolina, all five of the system's group homes — which generally house less-violent offenders and offer more individual attention — have been shuttered. Also gone are some intensive youth reform and after-school programs in detention facilities.
The story is similar in other states. Kentucky is cutting a boot camp-style program developed by the National Guard. Virginia is losing behavioral services staff and a facility that prepares children to go home after serving time, along with smaller camps and community programs. Juveniles in those programs will return to traditional correctional facilities.
"It's not like we're going to say, 'OK, let's close a juvenile detention center,' or something like that," said Gordon Hickey, spokesman for Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. "We have to reduce spending across the state, and the governor looked at suggestions and recommendations from all departments. He certainly realizes that all of these reductions have consequences. The idea is to limit the damage as much as possible."
Among the programs being cut in South Carolina is one that Lex Wilbanks, an 18-year-old arrested four years ago on drug and gun charges, credits with giving him back his future.
Before moving to a program run by Florida nonprofit Associated Marine Institute, which provides intensive counseling and wilderness camps in several states, Wilbanks spent four months in a regular juvenile detention center.
"When you did something wrong or you fight or you disrespect staff, they just throw you into lockdown," Wilbanks said. "They just throw you in and make them fight to survive. You're just making them a hardened criminal."
In South Carolina, only 22 percent of offenders who go through the institute's program later break the law, less than half the recidivism rate for juveniles in large state facilities, Byars said.
Through the program, Wilbanks worked his way to the top rank in Army Junior ROTC and earned a GED and college credits. Counselors "talk you through problems and how you can actually change," he said. "It gives you hope."
Individual focus helps
Florida also is axing three Associated Marine Institute programs to save $1.7 million, part of an effort to cut 4 percent, or $18 million, from the juvenile justice budget. Advocates are bracing for more cuts as legislators prepare to deal with a $2 billion state budget hole.
The picture isn't as bleak everywhere. In New York, where the jailed juvenile population has fallen as the state adopts a more community-based approach, Gov. David Paterson has proposed closing six youth facilities and consolidating and downsizing others that aren't being fully used to save $12 million in 2009-10 and $14 million in 2010-11.
A court order limits the cuts California can make, and Minnesota, Massachusetts and Nebraska haven't made serious cuts. Other states, including Connecticut, Oregon, New Hampshire and Utah, are making more modest cuts or delaying planned spending.
Advocates say they worry most about losing programs, such as group homes, that take children out of large facilities to give them individual attention.
Juvenile facilities see an array of criminals. Gun, drug, sex and assault offenders may share sleeping quarters and classes with teen pranksters.
Generally, less-violent offenders make it to smaller group homes where, experts say, pecking orders are easier to defuse than in prisons, where gangs form and fight for control.
Sheila Bedi, executive director of the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute, said housing a child can cost $600 a day. But the costs can soar when children emerge hardened from big youth prisons, commit more crimes and end up in adult facilities.
"The truant comes out learning how to steal a car," Bedi said. "You cannot expect a child to come out of that situation with the ability to make better life decisions."
Kate Howard of The Tennessean and Dena Potter of The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Comments on the above article:
(same link as above)
maryali wrote:
Just maybe this is not a bad idea, They just keep comming back for more, after they are releast from Juvy , and the reason being , they feel as if they"ve been on a vacation money , good food , plenty fun and the sense of ill be home by summer Good place to be when home aint happy. the attitude is just that , and i know i seen two , grow up and they are both in lock up today and both had every chance to be productivive citizens . and they thrive on how much they can get away with. .... Maybe give them one chance at rehab. and let them know next time its lock up , Might work
12/27/2008 3:50:37 AM[/list]
dave615c wrote:
Public hangings will deter todays youth.....................It's been working for centuries in other countrys.
12/27/2008 4:42:10 AM[/list]
tngutpile wrote:
What is an effective "rehabilitation program" for a 16 year old that has committed an armed robbery or other violent crime? If such a thing exists, why would it be effective on a 16 year old juvenile and not an 18 year old adult that committed the same crimes/offenses? I'm all for looking at "effective" alternatives to incarceration for juveniles but this article and those individuals that are quoted in the article make no mention of an "effective rehabilitation program" that currently exists. Is there such a program currently in place and being practiced somewhere that is being considered for the "axe" due to budget cuts? Most citizens are not unsympathetic to some of the root causes for juvenile crime, yet we also understand that when a child reaches a certain point in their lives there is little if anything that we as a society can do to redirect the child from their criminal lifestyle. If there is such a program and it has a better than 50/50 success rate in "rehabilitating" violent juvenile criminals, I, for one, would love to hear more about it. Sadly, I doubt that such a program exists, otherwise, it would be heralded in articles such as this one.
12/27/2008 7:54:01 AM[/list]
ASharpton wrote:
// Youth advocates say they expect the recession will bring more cuts next year in other states, hitting programs that try to rehabilitate children rather than simply locking them up. //
Youth advocates make their living providing worthless counseling and rehab services. More offenders and more repeat criminals is good for business... of course they'll squeal when their "workloads" are cut. Good, if they do hard time, maybe the rest of us will be safer and more kids will think twice before entering a career of crime.
12/27/2008 10:56:23 AM[/list]
Cleburnus wrote:
"What good does it do to send a 16-year-old to the penitentiary on a robbery charge?" Deaner said. "
I guess Ms. Deaner has never faced a drug addled psychopath aged 16 with a gun in her face.
If we are to spend public monies on counseling young thugs and perverts we should make them do labor to repay their loan.
Public monies would be better spent on those youth who are trying in school , working hard, staying out of trouble..etc...give them the money.
what do youth learn...do a crime do time? not! go see some naive counselor and play the victim ..whine and moan for months on end til ...voila! they have finished their counseling a wiser thug but still a thug.
12/27/2008 5:09:25 PM[/list]
coredrill wrote:
Take them to the State line, put five dollars in their pocket, turn them around real fast and run like heck.
12/29/2008 6:22:27 AM[/list]
labcowgirl wrote:
I think it is very sad that the state will be losing such a valuable resource. The system is not perfect but it does help some of our youth. Don't we want these youth to grow up to be productive law abiding citizens? Putting these kids in a locked facility with no counseling or rehab services will do nothing but ensure that they end up in prison one day. Do you really want your tax dollars paying to keep people in prison? I would rather put in money and time up front rather than end up with thousands of dollars a year going to keep them in prison. What good does that do anyone? It does not deter crime as some may think...look at the fact that we continue to build prisons and you can see that. Its much easier and cheaper to help boys become men than to try and mend men. I pray that these young boys and girls do not fall though the cracks becuase we feel it will be better and cheaper to just lock them up and throw away the key. God bless them and us.
12/30/2008 8:09:45 AM[/list]