This chapter discusses institutional and residential interventions for juvenile offenders. Over 81,000 juvenile offenders were placed in detention facilities in 2008. Boot camps aim to provide discipline but do not reduce recidivism. The most prevalent issue is the presence of mental disorders in over 2/3 of juvenile offenders. Effective programs have been shown to significantly reduce recidivism while ensuring youths receive needed treatment and services.

1. Juvenile Justice: An Introduction, 7th ed.
Chapter 10
Institutional/Residential
Interventions

2. Chapter 11
What You Need to Know
• 81,015 juvenile offenders were in public, private, or tribal
residential placement on the date of most recent consensus.
In addition, more than 2,700 juveniles were in adult prisons
according to recent data.
• Boot camps can be cost-effective and result in academic
progress. They do not reduce recidivism, however, despite
the common sense belief that military-type discipline is
beneficial.
• Recent statistics indicate that 55% of juveniles released from
state facilities are rearrested. On the other hand, effective
programs can reduce recidivism significantly.
• The most prevalent problem in the juvenile justice system is
the presence of mental disorders. Studies show that more
than 2/3 of juveniles in the juvenile justice system experience
mental disorders.

3. Chapter 11
What You Need to Know (cont’d)
• Estimates of victimization, including sexual victimization, in juvenile
facilities vary; some estimates indicate that almost 2/3 of youths
are victimized. In a recent government study, 12% of youths in state
juvenile facilities and large private facilities reported one or more
incidents of sexual victimization in the previous year or since their
admission to the facility.
• Racial tension has been a problem in juvenile facilities. In 2007,
minorities constituted 66% of the committed juveniles in custody in
public and private facilities nationwide.
• Deinstitutionalization or stopping involuntary placements of status
offenders continues; in 2007, only 2,486 committed status
offenders were in residential placement.
• Many wilderness programs have not been effective, but a recent
evaluation showed that such programs with treatment
enhancements can reduce recidivism.

4. Chapter 11
Institutional Corrections for Juveniles
• In 2008, 81,015 juvenile offenders were placed in detention,
correctional or shelter facilities.
• According to the most recent report, in 2009, there were
2,717 juveniles in state (adult) prisons. Six states
(Connecticut, New York, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, and
Arizona) held more than half of all juveniles in state prisons.
• Although probation handles many more youths, institutions
involve a significant minority of the offenders who go through
the juvenile justice system. They are the costliest part of the
system, New York reported a cost of more than $80,000 a
year.
• This chapter examines various types of institutional and
residential interventions with juveniles, including state
training schools, youth camps, private placements, and group
homes.

5. Chapter 11
State Training Schools
• State training schools - the juvenile justice system equivalent of the
adult prison, which serve to house delinquents whom juvenile court
judges consider unfit for probation or some lesser punishment.
• Some state training schools resemble adult prisons in terms of their
architecture (i.e. high walls/fences, locked cell blocks, self
sufficiency facilities, and solitary confinement).
• Other training schools have the so-called cottage system and may
resemble dormitories.
• State training schools offer a combination of academic/vocational
education (life skills development, remedial reading/writing,
conflict resolution skills, computer literacy, mathematics etc.) and
behavior modification (daily rewards for appropriate behavior and
reduction of privileges for inappropriate behavior).

6. Chapter 11
Boot Camps
• Boot camps (or shock incarceration) — short time facilities
(90 days – 6 months) intended to resemble basic training
facilities for the military.
– There is a considerable emphasis on discipline and physical
training such as marching, running, calisthenics, and other
types of conditioning.
• Boot camps were intended to help to protect the public,
reduce prison crowding, reduce costs, punish offenders, hold
offenders accountable, deter additional crime, and
rehabilitate (counseling and education).
• Though adult and juvenile participants rate their camp
experience as positive, the evidence shows that boots camps
have little to no effect on recidivism.

7. Chapter 11
IYC Joliet

8. Chapter 11

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12. Chapter 11
Institutional Life
• Within the juvenile justice system, institutional placement
must provide a caring and nurturing environment that will
allow the delinquents to change to pro-social behavior in the
institution. This will then carry over into future behavior
after release.
• The most prevalent problem in the juvenile justice system is
mental disorders. Studies show that more than 2/3 of
juveniles in the juvenile justice system experience mental
disorders.
• The most dramatic example of a negative effect of the
institution on incarcerated youths is the problem of
victimization, which ranges from the relatively insignificant
act of taking a boy’s dessert to forcing a boy to perform
sexual acts.

13. Chapter 11
Institutional Life (cont.)
• Racial tension - A problem in juvenile institutions. Bartollas
and Sieverdes (1981) found African-American youths to be
more dominant and more aggressive than white inmates:
“Twice as many black as white residents were classified by
staff members as highly aggressive towards others and over
40% of whites were defined by staff as passive.”
• Inmate misconduct - A study of 4,686 youths released from a
large Southern juvenile correctional system showed that on
average each delinquent committed about 53 misconduct
incidents while incarcerated.
• Deprivation of heterosexual contact - Another negative
effect of institutions is that incarcerated youths are deprived
of heterosexual relationships at a time when such
relationships are critical in helping the teenager to define
himself or herself as a mature sexual adult.

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15. Chapter 11
New Direction in Institutional
Interventions
• Since the mid-1970s there has been a movement away from
placing status offenders and delinquents in the same state-operated
institutions. In fact much of this movement has
been one of deinstitutionalization, which tries to avoid any
involuntary placements of status offenders .
• Blended sentencing - Allows either the juvenile court or the
adult court to impose a sentence that can involve either the
juvenile or the adult correctional system or both. Blended
sentencing can increase a youth’s chance to become
victimized.
• Wilderness programs, which appeal to common-sense
thinking, range from short stays in outdoor settings or rather
long wagon train or ocean ship trips to provide juveniles with
survival skills, limits, and self esteem. This may help juveniles
to turn to more constructive activities than delinquency.

16. Chapter 11
Program Effectiveness
• Studies such as Lipsey’s (2009) meta-analysis show
that effective interventions can reduce recidivism
significantly.
• Since many youths in custody often have drug usage
and/or substance abuse problems, correctional
programs need to address substance abuse.
• One issue is treatment integrity, that is, ensuring
that treatment programs are carried out faithfully. In
some cases, programs have actually violated the
principles of the intended program.