Evaluation of the Paint Creek Youth Center: A Residential Program for Serious Delinquents

• NCJ Number: 157871
• Author(s): P W Greenwood; S Turner
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 59 pages
• Grant Number(s): 89-IJ-CX-0049; 85-JN-CX-0016
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: Rand Corporation
• Publication Type: Program Description (Demonstrative)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A classic experimental design was used to determine if youth assigned to an experimental program that offered a comprehensive and highly structured array of intervention services and activities actually received significantly different treatment and performed better than control youth assigned to traditional training schools.

Abstract

The Paint Creek Youth Center (PCYC) program in a rural area of southwestern Ohio has several distinct phases, beginning with an orientation period and ending with a closely supervised transition period during which youth return to live in their community. Most youths spend about 12 months in the residential phase of the PCYC program. Programming and management techniques that distinguish the PCYC program from traditional training schools include its small size, the absence of locked doors and other physical restraints, a positive peer culture, a problem- oriented record system, clear incentives for positive behavior, frequent use of cognitive/behavioral methods, homogeneous behavioral groups, daily group therapy sessions, a regular school curriculum, substance abuse education, specialized sex offender therapy, family group therapy, work experience, and intensive community reintegration and aftercare. The PCYC program was evaluated based on official records of participating youths, a staff perceptions survey, caseworker/counselor exit interviews, youth initial interviews, and 1-year youth followup interviews. Interviews with youth and program staff suggested that the experimental program delivered significantly more treatment services than traditional training schools. Although 10 percent fewer experimental youth were rearrested within 1 year after release, more of them self-reported committing crimes. No differences in outcome measures were statistically significant. The PCYC evaluation found a program design with strong face validity and internal consistency and a well implemented and managed program. Additional information on the program evaluation is contained in a technical appendix. 31 references and 21 tables