NCJ Number
150296
Journal
Youth Today Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Dated: (July-August 1994) Pages: 20-22
Date Published
1994
Length
3 pages
Annotation
The juvenile justice system in Arkansas is undergoing a radical transformation, in which large training schools are being replaced by community-based programs and serious offender camps scattered around the State.
Abstract
These new facilities are designed to teach life skills and improve the educational levels of juvenile offenders in order to rehabilitate them before they embark on adult criminal careers. The State Division of Youth Services (DYS) is building on a system of community providers to divert juvenile offenders to day treatment, therapeutic group homes, electronic monitoring, independent living, and restitution programs. The most serious offenders will be placed in six 25- bed regional centers, most of them wilderness camps, which will be secured by a low staff-to-resident ratio rather than by fences and walls. Juvenile offenders who finish their sentence at the camps will be committed to community residential centers for 9 months and undergo 6 months of further supervision following their final release.