NCJ Number
132087
Date Published
1990
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This paper focuses on the institutional treatment of young offenders and how correctional facilities can best help residents assume socially constructive and productive roles in society.
Abstract
A concern about chronic, serious, and violent offenders in the United States has shifted the focus of juvenile sentencing from rehabilitation to punishment, just deserts, and accountability. An institution for young offenders should be one where the correctional climate is conducive to treatment. At a minimum, this means that the institution should be small (10-15 residents), be in and as much a part of the community as possible, have a high staff-client ratio, provide treatment and not custody, provide for short lengths of stay, and have security functions performed more by staff and programming than by physical and mechanical means. Both cognitive-behavioral and wilderness training programs can give young offenders the ability to exercise control over their behavior and environment. These programs provide rewards and punishments that are clear, consistent, and immediate. Successful treatment programs should include a structured educational component. Behavioral contracts can be used to delineate individual treatment goals in education and counseling. An analysis of the literature on institutional treatment possibilities for young offenders indicates considerable agreement on such basic issues as individualization, continuity, reintegration and aftercare, staffing, and structure. Case descriptions of a wilderness program and an intensive residential program are included. 9 notes