Criminal Justice

There are a number of stages in the process that must be done properly to ensure a juvenile is appropriately treated.   First, it must be determined early in the process if the juvenile should be diverted from the formal system.  As we have learned, this is often the case and does have significant advantages over institutionalization including the availability of services.  Programs offered inside an institution are going to limited because of the nature of confinement and limited resources to hire professionals to run the programs.  Diversion means that programs that exist in the community can be accessed.  These programs typically offer much more variety than can exist in institutions.  Second, treatment in community can include the family of the juvenile which is important because the juvenile will likely go back to the family after release and because the family, in some cases, is part of the reason why the juvenile got into trouble.  Treating only the child as separate from the family would have limited impact.  Third, it is very difficult to change the behavior of either a juvenile or an adult while the person is in the highly controlled environment of an institution.  The programs may be designed to change behavior so the juvenile can be a good member of society but the behavior inside an institution is vastly different than that which occurs outside.  Places of confinement are not good places to change behavior for the better.