NCJ Number
183978
Date Published
1998
Length
294 pages
Annotation
This book is an analytical and autobiographical account of the author's tenure as head of the Massachusetts juvenile justice system, during which he closed reformatories and returned juvenile offenders to community supervision and treatment by private schools and youth agencies.
Abstract
As commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services, the author closed the State's training schools for delinquents, beginning with maximum-security institutions for violent juveniles, and sent juvenile inmates home or into alternative programs. This "Massachusetts Experiment," as it has come to be called, is completing its second decade. The effectiveness of the Massachusetts deinstitutionalization model is reviewed and assessed with respect to juvenile justice system reform and community-based alternatives for juvenile offenders. Notes