NCJ Number
192174
Journal
Youth and Society Volume: 33 Issue: 2 Dated: December 2001 Pages: 273-295
Date Published
December 2001
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article describes the Prosocial Communities Solution (PSC) developed by the authors to develop community infrastructure to achieve restorative justice goals related to at-risk youth and their families.
Abstract
Balanced and restorative justice argues for greater accountability, competency, and public safety through community care of juvenile offenders. PSC aims to achieve these goals by providing the infrastructure for specific prevention and intervention programs mounted by caregiver agencies. The PSC develops an infrastructure around central elements of information sharing, coordinated supervision, and immersion in prosocial activities. A clinical, cross-organizational management information system helps the community to align parents with professional caregivers responsible for at-risk youth. The caregiver alliance deploys a cross-organizational ad hoc caregiver team for each juvenile offender on community diversion, probation, or parole. Ad hoc teams negotiate individual risk-reduction contracts with youth and parents to provide round-the-clock caregiver-supervised prosocial activities, including restorative justice practices. At-risk youth receive natural lessons in self-regulation through participation in prosocial activities. The caregiver alliance can also learn from locally collected data about the procedures that successfully embody restorative justice goals and elevate the standard of care for at-risk youth. Figure and 66 references (Author abstract modified)