danielle
01-05-2005, 11:03 AM
Project hopes to use Missouri juvenile system as a model
BY MATTHEW FRANCK
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS - (KRT) - When it comes to figuring out a way to turn around the toughest juvenile offenders, California wants what Missouri has got.
So do Maryland, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina and a half dozen other states that have come to Missouri in the past few years to study what many regard as the best youth corrections system in the nation.
Now, a new project hopes to elevate Missouri's status in juvenile corrections even further, seeking to usher in a national reform movement patterned after the Show-Me state.
The Missouri approach rejects conventional thinking in juvenile justice that's locked up most of the nation's youth offenders in prisonlike correction centers. Instead, Missouri closed down its large centers in favor of community-based programs that emphasize reform over punishment.
The cottage approach is used for even the toughest youth offenders, many of whom reside at maximum-security youth centers such as the Hogan Street Regional Youth Center in St. Louis. A small number of minors, however, are tried as adults and sentenced to adult prisons.
The initiative involves the retirement of the man who some say is most responsible for transforming Missouri's system.
Mark Steward announced recently that he is stepping down as head of Missouri's Division of Youth Services, a post he has held for 16 years. During Steward's tenure, the state's youth reform system has earned a national reputation for its low reoffender rates.
Steward plans to form a national institute, based in Missouri, to help other states mimic Missouri's system.
"It's almost like Missouri would become the training lab for the rest of the country," Steward said.
The effort comes at a time when some are predicting a national overhaul in youth corrections, brought about, in part, by recent findings by the federal government of civil rights abuses nationwide.
"What is going on around this country in juvenile confinement is thoroughly disgusting in many states," said Douglas Abrams, a University of Missouri professor who has written extensively about Missouri's system. "Missouri is clearly the number one state for doing it right."
Last month, a team of youth corrections officials from California was the latest to kick the tires of Missouri's system, touring three programs in the St. Louis area.
Along the way, Steward offered his best sales pitch for what has become known as the "Missouri model." Steward told the group of the need to think small in building facilities for juvenile offenders.
At the Hillsboro Treatment Center, for example, the California delegation toured a center that houses a maximum of 32 youths in what the state calls "cottages." The open, dormlike buildings have little in common with the prison-style cells used in states such as California.
California recently settled a lawsuit acknowledging broad failures with its youth corrections programs. Some have called the system among the worst in the nation for locking severe offenders in cells for 23 hours a day.
Walter Allen III, who heads the California Youth Authority, said the contrasts between the California and Missouri systems are stark. This month marked the third time he has visited Missouri programs since June.
"I want to do something that moves us to a more therapeutic environment," he said. "Because right now we're a more correctional environment."
Allen said he would not have visited Missouri so often if the state did not offer proof of results.
Though comparing states is difficult, Missouri generally is heralded as having the lowest recidivism rate in the nation for youth corrections. About two-thirds of offenders avoid run-ins with the criminal justice system within three years of completing programs. In contrast, California sees more than 70 percent of its youth inmates back behind bars within three years.
Missouri's system is less expensive to run per inmate than the one in California. That's owed partly to the fact that Missouri youths spend less time in the system.
California's current situation is similar to Missouri's three decades ago. At the time, hundreds of offenders were held in places like the Boonville Training School for Boys. The center was notorious for its violence and was the subject of federal investigations.
Missouri experimented with a different approach in 1970, with the opening of an experimental program in the woods near Poplar Bluff. Steward was among the first counselors at the site. In his 35 years in the agency, he's seen the state transform its system following the cottage approach.
Steward told the California group that building cottages is only a start. He said the whole mind-set of corrections for youth needs to change.
In many states, for example, youth corrections workers have nearly identical credentials of adult corrections workers. The Missouri system, meanwhile, employs workers with college degrees in sociology or related fields. The young offenders participate in daily therapy and are put in groups where positive peer pressure is used to improve behavior.
Youth corrections experts say it's the programs and the employees - not the small buildings - that are the hallmarks of the Missouri system.
"I don't think you could have a system like you have in Missouri without having a cultural change," said Bart Lubow, director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Program for High Risk Youth.
The goal of Steward's new institute will be to encourage a similar cultural change nationwide.
Abrams, the University of Missouri professor, said he believes the timing is right as states are recognizing that old approaches are failing. That's partly due to findings by the U.S. Department of Justice in a dozen states of poor services for juvenile offenders.
"There is an openness now to doing the right thing," he said.
Steward's plan is to use donations from several private foundations to create an institute that would draw hundreds of youth services officials to Missouri for training and to tour programs.
Among the likely donors is the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which already has paid for representatives from other states, including California, to visit Missouri.
Steward said the institute would first seek to weed out flaws in Missouri's system. For starters, budget cuts have reduced the number of trainers needed to instruct youth services workers. The institute could fill that void, Steward said.
And while Missouri may be a model for its state youth corrections, county juvenile lockups are considered to be no better than those in other states. The Casey Foundation is already working to improve services in those lockups, including the St. Louis Detention Center.
As Steward leaves the Division of Youth Services, many like Lubow hope that a permanent training institute in the state will ensure that Missouri's system remains a model.
Steward believes that the system will endure because so many youth corrections workers in the state agree about how to treat delinquent youths.
"They are not animals to be herded around," Steward said.
Nick, a 16-year-old at the Hillsboro program who served as a tour guide for the California delegation, said he's proof of what's working in Missouri.
After assaulting a man, Nick was sent to the program in June. He was prepared for the kind of bare-knuckle penitentiary he'd seen on television.
"I expected orange jumpsuits," he said. "But it's not like that at all."
Instead, Nick said staff members helped him manage his anger, improve his outlook and work on his education.
A few hours after his tour with the Californians, Nick left the Hillsboro center for good, walking out with his grandfather and two things he lacked when he was arrested: a GED and strong prospects for enrolling in a technical college next year.
BY MATTHEW FRANCK
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS - (KRT) - When it comes to figuring out a way to turn around the toughest juvenile offenders, California wants what Missouri has got.
So do Maryland, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina and a half dozen other states that have come to Missouri in the past few years to study what many regard as the best youth corrections system in the nation.
Now, a new project hopes to elevate Missouri's status in juvenile corrections even further, seeking to usher in a national reform movement patterned after the Show-Me state.
The Missouri approach rejects conventional thinking in juvenile justice that's locked up most of the nation's youth offenders in prisonlike correction centers. Instead, Missouri closed down its large centers in favor of community-based programs that emphasize reform over punishment.
The cottage approach is used for even the toughest youth offenders, many of whom reside at maximum-security youth centers such as the Hogan Street Regional Youth Center in St. Louis. A small number of minors, however, are tried as adults and sentenced to adult prisons.
The initiative involves the retirement of the man who some say is most responsible for transforming Missouri's system.
Mark Steward announced recently that he is stepping down as head of Missouri's Division of Youth Services, a post he has held for 16 years. During Steward's tenure, the state's youth reform system has earned a national reputation for its low reoffender rates.
Steward plans to form a national institute, based in Missouri, to help other states mimic Missouri's system.
"It's almost like Missouri would become the training lab for the rest of the country," Steward said.
The effort comes at a time when some are predicting a national overhaul in youth corrections, brought about, in part, by recent findings by the federal government of civil rights abuses nationwide.
"What is going on around this country in juvenile confinement is thoroughly disgusting in many states," said Douglas Abrams, a University of Missouri professor who has written extensively about Missouri's system. "Missouri is clearly the number one state for doing it right."
Last month, a team of youth corrections officials from California was the latest to kick the tires of Missouri's system, touring three programs in the St. Louis area.
Along the way, Steward offered his best sales pitch for what has become known as the "Missouri model." Steward told the group of the need to think small in building facilities for juvenile offenders.
At the Hillsboro Treatment Center, for example, the California delegation toured a center that houses a maximum of 32 youths in what the state calls "cottages." The open, dormlike buildings have little in common with the prison-style cells used in states such as California.
California recently settled a lawsuit acknowledging broad failures with its youth corrections programs. Some have called the system among the worst in the nation for locking severe offenders in cells for 23 hours a day.
Walter Allen III, who heads the California Youth Authority, said the contrasts between the California and Missouri systems are stark. This month marked the third time he has visited Missouri programs since June.
"I want to do something that moves us to a more therapeutic environment," he said. "Because right now we're a more correctional environment."
Allen said he would not have visited Missouri so often if the state did not offer proof of results.
Though comparing states is difficult, Missouri generally is heralded as having the lowest recidivism rate in the nation for youth corrections. About two-thirds of offenders avoid run-ins with the criminal justice system within three years of completing programs. In contrast, California sees more than 70 percent of its youth inmates back behind bars within three years.
Missouri's system is less expensive to run per inmate than the one in California. That's owed partly to the fact that Missouri youths spend less time in the system.
California's current situation is similar to Missouri's three decades ago. At the time, hundreds of offenders were held in places like the Boonville Training School for Boys. The center was notorious for its violence and was the subject of federal investigations.
Missouri experimented with a different approach in 1970, with the opening of an experimental program in the woods near Poplar Bluff. Steward was among the first counselors at the site. In his 35 years in the agency, he's seen the state transform its system following the cottage approach.
Steward told the California group that building cottages is only a start. He said the whole mind-set of corrections for youth needs to change.
In many states, for example, youth corrections workers have nearly identical credentials of adult corrections workers. The Missouri system, meanwhile, employs workers with college degrees in sociology or related fields. The young offenders participate in daily therapy and are put in groups where positive peer pressure is used to improve behavior.
Youth corrections experts say it's the programs and the employees - not the small buildings - that are the hallmarks of the Missouri system.
"I don't think you could have a system like you have in Missouri without having a cultural change," said Bart Lubow, director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Program for High Risk Youth.
The goal of Steward's new institute will be to encourage a similar cultural change nationwide.
Abrams, the University of Missouri professor, said he believes the timing is right as states are recognizing that old approaches are failing. That's partly due to findings by the U.S. Department of Justice in a dozen states of poor services for juvenile offenders.
"There is an openness now to doing the right thing," he said.
Steward's plan is to use donations from several private foundations to create an institute that would draw hundreds of youth services officials to Missouri for training and to tour programs.
Among the likely donors is the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which already has paid for representatives from other states, including California, to visit Missouri.
Steward said the institute would first seek to weed out flaws in Missouri's system. For starters, budget cuts have reduced the number of trainers needed to instruct youth services workers. The institute could fill that void, Steward said.
And while Missouri may be a model for its state youth corrections, county juvenile lockups are considered to be no better than those in other states. The Casey Foundation is already working to improve services in those lockups, including the St. Louis Detention Center.
As Steward leaves the Division of Youth Services, many like Lubow hope that a permanent training institute in the state will ensure that Missouri's system remains a model.
Steward believes that the system will endure because so many youth corrections workers in the state agree about how to treat delinquent youths.
"They are not animals to be herded around," Steward said.
Nick, a 16-year-old at the Hillsboro program who served as a tour guide for the California delegation, said he's proof of what's working in Missouri.
After assaulting a man, Nick was sent to the program in June. He was prepared for the kind of bare-knuckle penitentiary he'd seen on television.
"I expected orange jumpsuits," he said. "But it's not like that at all."
Instead, Nick said staff members helped him manage his anger, improve his outlook and work on his education.
A few hours after his tour with the Californians, Nick left the Hillsboro center for good, walking out with his grandfather and two things he lacked when he was arrested: a GED and strong prospects for enrolling in a technical college next year.