NCJ Number
217037
Journal
Corrections Today Magazine Volume: 68 Issue: 7 Dated: December 2006 Pages: 24-28
Date Published
December 2006
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article describes the improvements the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) has made to its female inmate programming.
Abstract
In 2002, the South Carolina governor appointed Judge William Byars to head the DJJ and gave him two priorities: (1) end the 13-year Federal litigation concerning conditions in agency facilities; and (2) end the practice of warehousing children. Not only was the new director able to negotiate a satisfactory end to the Federal lawsuit within 1 year, he also ushered in a complete overhaul of DJJ services for female offenders. Previously housed in a physically inadequate facility, the girls were relocated to the Willow Lane campus where they were separated by sight and sound from the male juvenile offenders. The new female facility, which has 64 beds, boasts a school building, a gymnasium, recreation fields, and well-appointed visiting areas. DJJ also committed itself to completely overhauling the way female juvenile justice was approached and an in-depth examination of everything in the girls’ facility was undertaken, from staffing, to classification, to treatment services, to education. Staff members and female inmates were included in the re-assessments. Some of the changes implemented included more normative clothing for the girls (and the boys), special units for disruptive girls, decreased use of lock-up for girls, and an array of treatment and counseling programs aimed at the needs of girls, such as substance abuse treatment and sexual abuse counseling. One of the key ingredients to the success of the DJJ’s evolution has been its partnership with Clemson University, which pledged in a 2003 memorandum of agreement to help with innovative programming for the Youth Development Center at Camp Long, which provides programming for both boys and girls. Future plans include the 2007 opening of the fully furnished and staffed Girls Transition Home. Exhibits