States adopt Missouri youth justice model

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As states grapple with spiraling prison costs and reports of abuse in juvenile lock-ups, many are trying to recreate a successful Missouri program that boasts one of the lowest repeat-offender rates in the country.


It took a crisis, but the Show-Me State in the early 1980s abandoned its embattled youth corrections facility, which housed 650 juveniles, and switched to smaller regional treatment centers that provide education, job training and 24-hour counseling. Missouri’s approach — originally pioneered in Massachusetts — aimed at creating a safe, non-punitive environment, where counselors help troubled kids turn around their lives.


“Everything we did was guided by a central belief: These are kids, even though they’ve committed some very adult-like behaviors. Let’s find out how they got into this, and help them get out of it and lead productive lives,” said Tim Decker, director of Missouri’s Division of Youth Services.


The result of a scathing federal government report on the conditions and punishments in its juvenile lock-up, Missouri’s radical new approach was some 20 years ahead of what is becoming a national trend. In the last three years, lawmakers and other officials from at least 30 states have visited the Missouri facilities, and several are taking steps to adopt the system.

Stateline

This society will pay dearly for the savagery inflicted on ‘our’ youth trapped in the for-profit juvenile justice system.

The Missouri model offers some hope that the cycle of abuse will end.