| A major reason most experts today
support concepts such as a youth services bureau is that. traditional
correctional practices fail to rehabilitate many delinquent youth. It has been
estimated that as many as 70 percent of all youth who have been
institutionalized are involved in new offenses following their release.
Contemporary correctional institutions are usually isolated—geographically and
socially--from the communities in which most of their inmates live. In addition,
rehabilitative programs in the typical training school and reformatory focus on
the individual delinquent rather than the environmental conditions which foster
delinquency. Finally, many institutions do not play an advocacy role on behalf of those committed to their care. They fail to do anything constructive about the hack-home conditions-family, school, work--faced by the youthful inmates. As a result, too often institutionalization serves as a barrier to the successful return of former inmates to their communities. Perhaps the most serious consequence of sending youth to large, centralized institutions, however, is that too frequently they serve as a training ground for criminal careers. The classic example of the adult offender who leaves prison more knowledgeable in the ways of crime than when he entered is no less true of the juvenile committed to a correctional facility. The failures of traditional correctional institutions, then, point to the need for the development of a full range of strategies and treatment techniques as alternatives to incarceration. Most experts today favor the use of small, decentralized correctional programs located in, or close to, communities where the young offender lives. Half-way houses, ail-day probation programs, vocational training and job placement services, remedial education activities, and street working programs are among the community-based alternatives available for working with delinquent and potentially delinquent youth. Over and above all the human factors cited, the case for community-based programs is further strengthened when cost is considered. The most recent' figures show that more $258 million is being spent annually on public institutions for delinquent youth. The average annual operating expenditure for each incarcerated youth is estimated at a little over five thousand dollars, significantly more than the cost of sending a boy or girl to the best private college for the same period of time. The continuing increase in juvenile delinquency rates only serves to heighten the drastic under-financing, the lack of adequately trained staff, and the severe shortage of manpower that characterize virtually every juvenile correction system. |