NCJ Number
79703
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 27 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1981) Pages: 522-533
Date Published
1981
Length
12 pages
Annotation
The authors, a former Commissioner and a former Deputy Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services, offer the thesis that the serious offender represents the ultimate test in any juvenile correctional system.
Abstract
They portray how the Massachusetts community-based correctional system has, in its first decade, met that test, and indicate what further work must be done to ensure that the system will survive the challenge of the conservative eighties. The article traces the development of juvenile correction in Massachusetts from the establishment of the first juvenile correctional institution in 1847 through the 1970s, a period marked by the rapid deinstitutionalization of juvenile offenders and construction of the community-based system, including the subsystem of secure care for serious juvenile offenders. The authors conclude that there are several conditions essential for the preservation of community correction in Massachusetts: (1) a sound, rehabilitative, and well-managed system, encompassing varied types of community-based care and providing small, secure units for confining the small percentage of youths who are dangerous; (2) effective leadership; (3) public education; and (4) the support of community correction by all branches of government as well as the general public. (Author abstract)