Crime File: Juvenile Rehabilitation

• NCJ Number: 123677
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 0 pages
• Publication Series: NIJ Crime Files
• Grant Number(s): 90-IJ-CX-0004
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program Description (Demonstrative)

Annotation

Following the portrayal of the Paint Creek Youth Center, a treatment program for serious juvenile offenders in Bainbridge, Ohio, this video presents a panel discussion of the effectiveness of such programs and issues in their expanded use.

Abstract

The Paint Creek program has "open" facilities and uses intensive positive peer pressure to force residents to confront the consequences of their behaviors for victims. Role modeling and role playing teaches the development of positive attitudes and behaviors. The entire program is structured around a point system that measures progress in positive changes. Youth stay in the program one year. In the panel presentation, Vicki Agee, director of the Paint Creek Youth Center, discusses admittance criteria, the program's effectiveness in reducing recidivism, and the benefits of the program's being managed by a private, nonprofit group. Frank Alarcon, chief deputy director of the California Youth Authority, discusses some of the problems in expanding the use of small residential programs in his State, such as citizens' resistance to the placement of facilities near them. Peter Greenwood of the Rand Corporation, who was involved in evaluating the Paint Creek program, discusses the program's effectiveness and the value of various juvenile treatment techniques.