9-15-2010 Texas:
Juvenile inmates can make inviting targets for sex offenders--and women are the most frequent perpetrators. Is the Texas Youth Commission ignoring the problem?
One evening in November 2007, an 18-year-old inmate in Beaumont’s Al Price Juvenile Correctional Facility was stretched out on his bunk when a female guard named Janice Simpson entered his room. The facility was short-staffed that day, so nobody was watching or listening when Simpson, 45, asked to see the teenager’s penis. Or when he showed her. Or when she told him she liked what she saw.
Later, at about 3:30 a.m., the two had sex on the gray, stained carpet of the facility’s concrete-walled “group room.”
Earlier that year, 390 miles away at the Gainesville State School, a 25-year-old cafeteria worker named Tabithea Leach asked a juvenile inmate to accompany her into a walk-in refrigerator. Leach asked another inmate to keep watch. When she emerged from the refrigerator, Leach was smiling. “I owe you big time,” she told the lookout. When the young man came out, he looked upset. His friend asked what happened. He was reluctant to say anything, but he did say he had “fucked her.” Not long afterward, the lookout heard Leach teasing the young man about his difficulty becoming erect.
These incidents, documented in reports the Observer obtained from the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), the agency that runs these facilities, eventually resulted in both the women being fired, convicted of violating the young men’s civil rights, and placed on probation (four years for Simpson, five for Leach). Neither the perpetrators, nor the victims, nor Leach’s lookout, reported the abuse. Word leaked out through the facilities’ rumor mills, and investigators eventually began asking questions.
Neither incident has received much attention until now. Beaumont’s local news station mentioned Simpson’s arrest once. One reason, experts say, is that sexual abuse perpetrated by women is often seen as relatively harmless, if not consensual. It’s also seen as taboo. “We don’t want to talk about female sexual deviance,” says Karen Duncan, author of Sexual Predators: Understanding Them to Protect Our Children and Youths. Women, Duncan says, “are not supposed to be sexually attracted to kids.”
Those perceptions don’t jibe with reality: Nationwide, 95 percent of sexual abuse allegations in juvenile correctional facilities were against female employees, according to 2008 findings released this year by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. That number is striking when you consider that just 42 percent of the facilities’ employees were women in 2008. (In 2009, 50 percent of Texas Youth Commission employees were female. The justice bureau will not release percentage breakdowns of sexual offenses by female employees in Texas, or at individual facilities. The bureau cites confidentiality as the reason.) Simpson’s and Leach’s convictions were two of only five stemming from scores of sexual-misconduct allegations against TYC staffers since 2008.
A shocking sexual-abuse scandal in TYC facilities three years ago prompted officials to take allegations and rumors of abuse more seriously. While legislative reforms mandated that an independent inspector general must investigate all allegations of sexual misconduct by TYC staffers at its 10 institutions and nine halfway houses, convictions continue to be rare.
One reason: These cases are usually “he said, she said” scenarios, with no forensic evidence and no witnesses. Some allegations were proven false. In other cases, because the inmates were mentally impaired, as many TYC inmates are, their testimony was not considered credible.
In the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ report, 10 of 12 Texas facilities surveyed had higher-than-average rates of alleged sexual abuse. Two Texas facilities were among the 13 nationwide with the highest reports of sexual victimization—the Corsicana Residential Treatment Center and the Victory Field Correctional Academy in Vernon. At Corsicana, 23 percent of inmates said they’d had sexual relations with facility staff in the previous year.
Why are so few allegations being investigated? Why are convictions so rare? One reason may be the predominance of abuse by female staffers. Research indicates that women are less likely than men to be reported for sexual misconduct. That’s not just a problem in Texas: Societal myths and double standards about female sexual abuse often leave victims unprotected, while increasing the likelihood that the women will re-offend. As Duncan notes, women are supposed to be nurturers, not abusers. When we hear about female sex offenders, people either shrug or look away. “It makes us uncomfortable,” she says. .For the rest of the story. Laura Burke
September 15, 2010
A Woman's Touch
January 7, 2010
Rader Center to cut staff, available units
1-7-2010 Oklahoma:
SAND SPRINGS — The Office of Juvenile Affairs will begin closing units at its maximum security facility, cutting the number of staff needed at the L.E. Rader Center.
Gene Christian, the agency’s executive director, met Tuesday with staff at the Rader Center in Sand Springs to inform employees of the changes. He said the number of juvenile offenders at Rader will shrink from 106 to 66 by July.
All state agencies are working with reduced funding while the state’s revenue collections are hard hit in the slumping economy. All agencies have seen their monthly allocations cut by 10 percent in December and January. The budget cuts are expected to continue into the next budget year, which begins in July.
To deal with the cuts to the agency, some cottages that house juvenile offenders at the Rader Center are being shuttered. The cottages are in need of repair, Christian said, and the department does not have enough money to make the repairs,. The Sand Springs facility will keep its maximum security beds and a unit that houses sex offenders at Rader. The rest of the juveniles will be sent to facilities in Manitou and Tecumseh.
That means less staff will be needed to care for youth at Rader. That includes employees who work directly with the juveniles, teachers and food service employees, he said.
The agency plans to cut staff initially by not filling vacant positions and cutting contracts between now and July. Agency employees could be offered a voluntary buyout plan before layoffs, if necessary, begin in July, Christian said. OJA already has offered a buyout and is furloughing employees to cope with budget cuts.
"Money is the remedy and it doesn’t look like there’s going to be any more coming,” he said. "We’re taking to heart the Legislature’s recommendation to make changes to the agency. OJA will not look the same in five years as it looks today.”
So far, the agency has absorbed $7.5 million in cuts. Additional cuts are expected next year, Christian said. The agency’s other sources of revenues also have decreased. Parents of children in custody are required to pay child support, and those collections are half as much as they were last year at this time, he said.
While all state agencies are struggling to absorb the budget cuts, agency officials and lawmakers should look at the whole picture, said Scott Barger, deputy director of the Oklahoma Employees Association.
"There’s a great need to modernize state government,” he said. "But we don’t think agencies should be overzealous. They should wait and see what the Legislature does. Reducing the beds at the juvenile level may mean that people aren’t rehabilitated and end in the Department of Corrections, costing us more in the long run.” ..Source.. JULIE BISBEE The Oklahoman
August 1, 2008
IN 2005 AND 2006 MORE THAN 4,000 ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE WERE REPORTED IN JUVENILE FACILITIES
8-1-2008 National:
About One in Five Were Confirmed After an Investigation
WASHINGTON — State, local and private juvenile correctional authorities reported an estimated 4,072 allegations of sexual violence involving youth held in juvenile facilities during 2005 and 2006, the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. It was the equivalent of 16.8 allegations per 1,000 youth held in state, local or private facilities in 2006 and 16.7 allegations per 1,000 youth in 2005.
An estimated 36 percent of the allegations of sexual violence in juvenile facilities were youth-on-youth nonconsensual sexual acts, such as rape and forcible sodomy; 21 percent were youth-on-youth abusive sexual contacts, such as unwanted touching or grabbing with the intention to exploit sexually.
About 32 percent of all allegations of sexual violence reported in state juvenile systems and local or private juvenile facilities involved staff sexual misconduct, defined as any act of a sexual nature directed toward a youth, either consensual or nonconsensual; 11 percent involved staff sexual harassment, including repeated comments or demeaning references of a sexual nature to a youth.
Juvenile correctional authorities substantiated 732 incidents of youth sexual violence in 2005 and 2006. An estimated 437 incidents involved youth-on-youth and 295 involved staff-on-youth. Nearly equal percentages of the incidents of youth-on-youth sexual violence were reported as voluntary sexual acts (22 percent), unwanted touching for sexual gratification (21 percent) and nonconsensual sexual acts involving force or pressure (21 percent).
Sexual misconduct involving staff-on-youth accounted for 28 percent of all substantiated incidents, while staff sexual harassment of youth accounted for 8 percent.
Victims of substantiated incidents of youth-on-youth sexual violence were more likely to be male (73 percent) than victims of staff-on-youth violence (49 percent). Females were more likely to be victims of staff sexual violence than victims of youth-on-youth sexual violence (51 percent versus 27 percent).
More than 60 percent of incidents of sexual violence took place outside the victim’s room or dormitory. A quarter of the incidents took place in a common area. In more than two-thirds of the incidents, the victim or another youth reported the incident.
Force or threat of force was more common among male victims (32 percent) of youth-on-youth incidents of sexual violence than among female victims (6 percent). A third of older victims (age 16 or older) had been injured, physically forced, held down or threatened (34 percent).
Approximately 10 percent of the substantiated incidents of staff-on-youth sexual violence involved force or pressure. Two-thirds were characterized by juvenile correctional authorities as “a romantic relationship” or as “appeared to be willing.” About half of staff perpetrators were male (54 percent) and a majority were under the age of 30 (63 percent).
Across all substantiated incidents of youth-on-youth sexual violence about 1 in 8 victims were injured (12 percent). Victims received medical attention and counseling or mental health treatment in nearly two-thirds of the incidents. Nearly half of all victims of staff-on-youth sexual misconduct or harassment were provided counseling or mental health treatment.
Sixty-three percent of perpetrators of youth-on-youth nonconsensual sexual acts received some form of legal sanction, including referral to law enforcement, arrest, referral for prosecution or a new sentence. Perpetrators of staff-on-youth sexual misconduct or harassment were arrested or referred for prosecution in nearly 40 percent of the incidents; nearly 90 percent resigned or were discharged.
The report is a part of the data collections required under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-79). Its publication is mandated by the act and is prepared annually. ..News Source.. by Bureau of Justice
July 3, 2008
Don’t Teach Our Children Crime
7-3-2008 National:
Under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, the states agreed to humanize their often Dickensian juvenile justice systems in exchange for increased federal aid. This promising arrangement collapsed in the 1990s during hysteria about an adolescent crime wave that never materialized. The states intensified all kinds of punishments for children and sent large numbers to adult jails where, research has shown, they are more likely to be battered, traumatized and transformed into hard-core, recidivist criminals.
Congress is in the process of reauthorizing the law, and it ought to bar the states from housing children in adult jails, except for the most heinous crimes. Sadly, the updated version of the law, recently introduced in the Senate, falls short of that goal. But it does include a number of farsighted measures that discourage the placement of children in adult jails during the pretrial period and expands protections for children charged as adults.
The need for these measures is alarmingly evident in a report issued last year by the Campaign for Youth Justice, an advocacy group. The report found that as many as 150,000 people under the age of 18 are held in adult jails in any given year. More than half of young people who are transferred into the adult system are never convicted as adults — and many are never convicted at all.
The Senate bill takes a comprehensive approach to these issues. It would considerably tighten rules aimed at keeping children out of adult jails during pretrial periods. Children arrested for truancy, running away or other offenses that would not be criminal if committed by an adult would not be placed in juvenile jail unless absolutely necessary.
It also would require the states to work toward reducing racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system. It increases federal funding for technical assistance and for drug treatment, mental health care, mentoring and after-care programs that keep children out of the juvenile system in the first place. The bill advocates an evidence-based approach to hand out the money.
Jailing and criminalizing young Americans causes a lot more crime than it punishes or prevents. This bill represents an important step toward rational and compassionate justice for troubled children. ..News Source.. by NY Times Editorial
February 28, 2008
OH- Violence hard to snuff at youth prisons
2-27-2008 Ohio:
COLUMBUS (AP) — The violence is provoked by the simplest things: A lunch tray mix-up, a snatched notebook, a sassy comeback or, in one case, a threatened rubber band attack.
But this is no middle school cafeteria. It's Ohio's youth prison system, where juvenile missteps can have painful consequences.
Since 2004, there have been at least 22 cases among the roughly 1,800 inmates housed by the Ohio Department of Youth Services being improperly slapped, kicked, choked, beaten, pushed through gates, rushed into walls or sexually molested by their caretakers.
In two cases — in 2004 and last May — a guard broke the arm of a teenager, according to department records reviewed by The Associated Press. A 180-pound youth housed in Marion lost consciousness when he was pressed to the floor by a 421-pound corrections officer. Another's eardrum was shattered when he was kicked in the head by a guard.
State officials are aware they have a problem. A consultant's report in December described a system saturated with violence and mistreatment, where youth are scared of each other and the staff, and guards fear the youth they oversee. Consultant Fred Cohen described the fear at one institution as "an all-consuming fire."
Last April, the Children's Law Center and other groups broadened a 2004 civil rights lawsuit against the Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility into a class action case against the entire agency, unhappy with the progress the department had made on its promises. The state agreed to abide by Cohen's recommendations based on that litigation and concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Cohen wrote, "As this lawsuit moves forward, a dramatic reduction in staff violence should be the first order of business."
Youth prisons director Tom Stickrath said efforts are under way to reverse a culture within the state's eight youth institutions that for many years resembled that of an adult prison. That model has been increasingly viewed as inappropriate for young offenders serving short-term sentences.
The juveniles are held for offenses ranging from murder or rape to receiving stolen property. The average sentence is 11 months.
Stickrath said every guard in 2007 took an advanced course in conflict resolution that focuses on using verbal rather than physical means to resolve conflicts. Youth inmates, nearly all of whom grew up in violent settings, are scheduled to take the course this year.
Instead of law enforcement-style uniforms, staff have changed to khaki cargo pants and light blue button-down shirts. A cold institutional atmosphere has been diminished with comfy couches and other aesthetic changes.
Yet violence occurred last year, records show, even as Cohen's review was under way.
On Aug. 7, a Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility guard forcibly escorted a youth to solitary confinement whom investigators later determined had done nothing wrong. When the boy resisted being locked up, the guard forced him to the floor out of sight of other officers and put his knee into the back of his neck.
The guard initially told investigators the youth had slipped on the newly waxed floor, a fact he later recanted among others.
A dietary consultant at Indian River detention center was fired in October after inmates reported that she was having inappropriate sexual contact with an inmate. She denied further allegations that she had given the youth cigarettes, lighters, tobacco and money.
Other investigations last year confirmed a guard threw hot coffee on a juvenile during a dispute and a different guard went to a youth's room out of sight of his colleagues and assaulted the boy.
Peter Wray, a spokesman for the union that represents juvenile corrections officers, or JCOs, said the officers are often asked to work double or triple shifts, to supervise large groups of youth without help, and to follow procedures that are "sometimes silly, sometimes dangerous."
"It's a system that has poor training, it's a system that has forced the JCOs into being totally security-only and has prevented them from playing any kind of positive treatment role, it's a system that's understaffed in six of the eight institutions, and it's a situation where mandated overtime is unbelievably out of control," said Wray, of the Ohio Civil and Service Employees Union.
He said such working conditions, many of them outlined in Cohen's report, contribute to the violence because guards are often overtired, overworked and stressed.
"When that (violent incident) happens, it's a symptom not the disease," he said.
Stickrath said he preaches non-violence when possible, but said running youth prisons isn't always going to be a peaceful pursuit.
"We understand that there's going to be that (physical force), but it's got to be within our policy and it can't be done for punishment," he said. "It can't go beyond what our policies and procedures and training permit."
He said he personally watches videotapes of incidents that prompt complaints, which have totaled more than 200 since the lawsuit was filed in 2004.
The department also has started a reporting system that allows managers to swiftly identify anomalies at an institution, such as a sudden spike in gang activity, suicide attempts or incident reports.
"My caveat is we're not going to manage this agency with use of force and use of luck," Stickrath said. "We're going to manage it through communications and keeping the kids busy, and using training and other techniques.
"But it's a clear kind of culture shift for the agency as a whole, and that's not easy." ..more.. by JULIE CARR SMYTH, AP Statehouse Correspondent
February 27, 2008
TN- Runaway Train
Alleged rapes, beatings and now a suicide attempt at a youth treatment facility
2-27-2008 Tennessee:
In late January, surveillance footage at Hermitage Hall, a treatment facility for nearly 100 male youth sex offenders ages 9 to 17, revealed that a staffer neglected his supervisory duties and spent nearly half an hour in a bathroom as several boys under his care appeared to be anally and orally raped by another resident (“Bitter Pill,” Feb. 14). With the brutal, sordid incident now under investigation by Metro police and the state’s Department of Children’s Services, it stands to reason that staffers at Hermitage Hall would be on high alert.
But little more than a week after reports of multiple counts of rape filtered in to state offices comes the horrifying report of a Hermitage resident who, distraught after a scuffle in the facility’s outdoor play area, threatened to plummet from an interstate overpass into the rush-hour traffic below.
According to a Feb. 7 incident report, the boy was involved in a physical altercation in the “back field” of the facility’s outdoor recreation area, located off of Eighth Avenue South. A Hermitage staffer, identified only as Ms. Foster, took the boy to a swing set to talk after the fight and encouraged him to line up with his peers, who were walking into the building.
Apparently unable to soothe the boy, the woman allowed two of the boy’s peers to take a shot at helping him. According to the report, the two boys tried “to encourage him to process his feelings” and join them inside. The peer-to-peer therapy didn’t work.
Instead, the boy ran away—all the way to Interstate 65, where, at approximately 5 p.m., he stood at the Hamilton Avenue overpass before climbing over the edge. With the interstate sign to his back, the boy sat with his legs dangling above traffic and threatened to jump.
Though police and the boy’s psychiatrist were reportedly at the scene trying to talk the boy down, it took a stranger in a semi-truck to rescue him. According to the incident report, the driver of an 18-wheeler positioned the truck’s trailer beneath the sign, allowing the boy to climb down. Police then transferred the resident to the Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute.
The incident report does not give the boy’s age or where he is from, though the state stopped placing Tennessee children at Hermitage in 2006. And it’s also not clear in the report where Hermitage staffers were when the boy bolted from facility grounds. Officials from Hermitage Hall refused to discuss the incident, instead writing a letter to the Scene pointing out that the facility is “licensed in good standing” by the state’s Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (DMHDD).
DMHDD officials refused to comment by phone about the incident. In an email to the Scene, department spokeswoman Jill Hudson wrote that DMHDD director of licensure Amber Gallina would only respond in writing to the Scene’s written questions.
In an email, Gallina admitted that the January rape allegations “caused concern” for her department, but she was quick to defend how Hermitage Hall handled the suicide attempt, saying staffers “followed all procedures for an incident of this type.”
Since the Scene first reported allegations made by Hermitage employees that residents were roughed up and placed in isolation rooms for weeks on end, forced to sleep on mattresses in the building’s hallways and given drug injections that experts liken to a chemical straitjacket (“Bad Medicine,” Dec. 13), countless reports that indicate clear security, operational and staffing issues at Hermitage have continued to filter into state offices. Even in the face of those allegations, Gallina says her office considers Hermitage a “viable vendor” with “quality staff and employees who are dedicated to their jobs and the mission of Hermitage Hall to help this category of youth.” ..more.. by Elizabeth Ulrich
November 5, 2007
Crisis-Prone Texas Juvenile Facilities Look to Reform
This is the second report in a two-part series. PART-I
All Things Considered, October 31, 2007 · The Texas juvenile corrections system is in a deep crisis. Allegations of physical and sexual abuse at youth prisons in Texas have led to arrests and firings of top officials and prompted a push to reform.
Evins Regional Juvenile Center in Edinburg, Texas, has played a central role in the scandals rocking the Texas Youth Commission. The center is one of 22 youth prisons run by the Texas Youth Commission and it is emblematic of the crisis facing the commission.
Failing to Protect Youth
Evins, a high-security facility located in a dusty little town in the Rio Grand valley just miles from the Mexico border, receives young offenders from around the state, including Dallas, Houston, Beaumont and even El Paso, which is 800 miles away. A 14-foot chain-link fence surrounds the compound, which houses 240 teens. Inside, boys in grey T-shirts and black athletic shorts, under the close watch of guards, march across the 100-acre campus.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a report saying that conditions at the 240-bed prison violate the constitutional rights of the youth confined there. The report said that assaults at the facility are five times the national average and that the institution, "fails to adequately protect the youths in its care from youth and staff violence."
The problems at Evins are numerous. Like most Texas juvenile detention facilities, it is understaffed. There have been riots. In March, the superintendent was fired. Juan Gonzales, an employee for 16 years at Evins, was promoted to the facility's assistant superintendent in September. He says youth offenders, who range in age from 13 to 20, come to Evins for myriad crimes.
"We don't have a lot of kids for murder," he says, "because there are other programs that specialize in those kinds of kids. But from aggravated assaults to burglary, sexual assaults, anything like that."
Young Offenders Get No Privacy
One of the most problematic areas at Evins are the open-bay, 96-bed dormitories. Each dorm is split into pods with 24 metal beds and two metal tables bolted to the floor. Correctional officers monitor the dorms from a control center in the middle of the complex. Michael, who's serving a 15-year sentence for aggravated robbery, says there are often fights at night and there's never any privacy.
"You're right next to everybody," Michael says. "When you take showers everybody's right there. When you use the restroom somebody's right next to you. No matter what you do, you ain't got no privacy."
Michael is hoping to be paroled when he turns 20, but he also could be sent to an adult prison to finish his sentence. He worries that if he gets into fights here, it will hurt his chances for parole. But he says it's hard to stay out of trouble "because there are a lot of younger kids and they don't know how to act. The hardest thing is keeping from beating them up. It's hard trying to maintain control to get out of here."
Texas Seeking Alternatives
For those residents who can't maintain control, there is an isolation area called the Security Unit where as many as 30 people are kept in isolation cells. All the cells are occupied. In one cell, a 13-year-old near the door screams profanities and bangs on his cell walls. Assistant Superintendent Gonzales says teens can be held in this isolation unit — at times just until they calm down — or for as long as 90 days.
By comparison, in Missouri, there are only nine isolation cells in the entire state for a system serving 1,000 youth offenders. Evins, along with the rest of the facilities run by the Texas Youth Commission, is attempting to change and to become a bit more like Missouri, where the focus is on small, treatment-orientated group homes.
Missouri has reaped the benefits of an alternative system. Tim Decker, the director of the Missouri Division of Youth Services, says Missouri's recidivism rate is less than 10 percent. According to the Texas Youth Commission report, the recidivism rate in Texas tops 50 percent.
Evins is shutting down one of its large dorms and building individual cells. It also offers education and counseling for its residents, but in this isolated corner of the state, it's often difficult to attract and keep professional staff. Will Harrell, who earlier this year was appointed as the ombudsman for the Texas Youth Commission, credits Missouri with offering a model for reform, but he says whatever changes are adopted in Texas will be unique to the state and will take time.
"It's a transition and a difficult one at that," Harrell says, "but everyone needs to understand that it took many years to get to the crisis that imploded the agency earlier this year, and it's going to take a while to stabilize the agency and move forward."
Harrell says progress is being made, but he also warns that it will take increased resources and political will to build a safer, more effective juvenile corrections system in the Lone Star State. ..more.. by Jason Beaubien
Missouri Sees Teen Offenders as Kids, Not Inmates
This is the first in a two-part series: PART-II
All Things Considered, October 30, 2007 · At the Northwest Regional Youth Center in Kansas City, Mo., a science class is under way with students eagerly discussing botany and roots.
The scene resembles a science classroom at any urban public high school except for the thick screens on the windows.
A tall chain-link fence surrounds the building, but inside there are few signs that these 10 teenagers are confined. They wear regular clothes and the teachers and staff are dressed casually.
The Northwest Regional Youth Center is where Missouri sends some of its most troubled — and troublesome — juvenile offenders. Street thugs from St. Louis mix with gang members from Kansas City and pint-sized, rural car thieves, yet there's a sense of calmness. It's part of Missouri's treatment-oriented approach toward juveniles where lockups are designed to resemble college dorms and offenders are treated firmly, seriously and humanely.
Offenders as Citizens
Tim Decker who runs the Missouri Division of Youth Services, says the goal is for young offenders to turn their lives around and not return. The way to make their criminal behavior stop, he says, is to help them get their lives on track. The result of Missouri's focus on rehabilitation is a 7.3 percent recidivism rate.
"Our first and primary function is public safety. We have young people who've become a problem in our community and that needs to stop," Decker says.
The Northwest Regional Youth Center is an old elementary school that houses 30 teenagers in three "teams" of 10. Each boy spends most of his day with nine other boys. They go to class in the same classroom, play basketball together, bunk in the same room and eat together. In the evening, they attend group therapy and counseling sessions as a group.
Barry Krisberg, president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, praises Missouri's approach and says states with troubled juvenile corrections systems could learn from its system.
"The basic logic of youth corrections is that if you treat young people like inmates, they'll act like prisoners," Krisberg says. "If you treat them like young people capable of being citizens, they'll much more likely act like citizens."
An Innovative Approach
Reggie, 16, came to the center five months ago, but he's been in juvenile detention facilities almost continuously since he was 13. His room, with a dozen bunk beds lining the wall, is festively decorated for Halloween with cardboard cutouts of black bats and orange pumpkins on the walls. He says the worst thing about being at the center is not seeing his family.
"That hurt me more than anything, just knowing that I can't just pick up the phone, call my family — know what they're up to," Reggie says. "I just can't go to the next room and expect my momma to be there or see my sister. Or go downstairs. I can't do any of that."
Reggie says he started stealing cars with his older brother when he was only 9 years old. One of eight children, Reggie was raised by a single mother who often shuttled the family between homeless shelters. He says therapy has made him think about how his chaotic childhood affected his life.
"I didn't have a lot of things that other kids had. I couldn't read, write or spell. I was class clown. That's what led up to me doing crime," Reggie says. "I'm not going to put everything off on that because it's got a lot to do with me making the right decisions, but it also has a lot to do with how I was brought up."
Reggie says he's been treated differently at the center. When he was first arrested, he couldn't read or write. Now Reggie is working toward his GED. Therapy has allowed him to let down his street-tough facade and talk about being angry and hurt. He says he hopes eventually to go to college and become a police officer. ..more.. by Jason Beaubien
