NCJ Number
72688
Date Published
1980
Length
96 pages
Annotation
Based on a review of Pennsylvania's secure care and treatment programs and policies for juvenile offenders, a special State committee recommended an increase in facility capacities, several program improvements, and revised commitment procedures
Abstract
The committee of 15 was created in October 1979 in response to widespread concern over inadequacies in institutional program for serious youthful offenders and completed its review of the issues by July 1980. The committee allocated its research responsibilities to three tasks groups: one vistied each of the six secure care programs operted by the department of public welfare; another group reviewed the criteria and processes for commitment to secure care facilities, as well a studying the length of stay issue; and a third examined records of youths committed to secure care programs to develop a profile of these youthful offenders. The committee recommended that the number of secure care and treatment beds be increased from the present 214 to at least 264. Suggestions for treatment programs included expanded educational opportunities, improved food services, and the establishment of an evaluation system. Criteria for placement of children over 14 years in a secure facility were defines. The committee felt that special treatment units should be developed for delinquents who were either mentally retarded or mentally ill. A detailed commitment process was outlined for juvenile courts and agencies to follow. The committee also recommended that the treatment units receive all information available on an inmate by the time of admission and that discharge summaries state specific reasons why a youth is being returned to the committing court. Youths who are not violent or chronic felony offenders should be placed in open cottage facilities or community-based programs. The reports of the three task groups are appended and contain summaries of the treatment programs visited along with reviewers' comments and statistical data on characteristics of youths committed to secure care units. Also included are staff reports which analyzed county plans for providing secure care to juveniles and studied delinquency cases referred to the State courts in 1979 in relation to dispositional alternatives. The questionnaires which were distributed to participants in a 1979 seminar on secure care and treatment of youthful offenders in Pennsylvania and an analysis of the responses conclude the report.