Work Experience and Employment Programming for Serious Juvenile Offenders: Prospects for a "Productive Engagement" Model of Intensive Supervision (From Intensive Interventions With High-Risk Youths, P 123-152, 1991, Troy L Armstrong, ed. -- See NCJ-129819)

• NCJ Number: 129823
• Author(s): G Bazemore
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 30 pages
• Sale Source: Criminal Justice Press/Willow Tree Press
• Publication Type: Program Description (Model)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This description of the "productive engagement" approach to the intensive supervision of juvenile offenders features the systematic use of offender work and employment to achieve public protection and an emphasis on restitution to the victim and the community at large.

Abstract

A "productive engagement" model may have several advantages over the more passive surveillance and treatment/services approaches to intensive supervision. Proponents tout the productive work that can improve communities and the business climate, victim restitution and service to community organizations, juvenile offenders' experience of receiving a legitimate income for positive performance, the incapacitation of offenders through intensively supervised programs, and a new positive public image for serious juvenile offenders. Some cautions in implementing such programs ensure that the most serious offenders are being referred to the programs, thatthe programs are genuine alternatives to other sanctions and not additions to them, and that the programs are linked to the formal education process for offenders. More research of a qualitative or ethnographic nature is needed to describe daily program operations, interactions between supervisors and juvenile offenders, and youths' perceptions of the programs. 6 notes and 91 references