NCJ Number
80731
Date Published
1980
Length
23 pages
Annotation
Findings are presented from a questionnaire administered to juvenile participants in a South Carolina adult inmate-administered program ('Save the Children') designed to inform juveniles about prison life and the consequences of a criminal lifestyle.
Abstract
'Save the Children,' an inmate-administered project operating at Central Correctional Institution, has sought to implement the values and avoid the weaknesses of the New Jersey program portrayed in the documentary film 'Scared Straight.' The Department of Youth Services has drafted guidelines for the program stipulating voluntary participation, admission criteria, limitations on session content, followup counseling, and development of a questionnaire to gauge the preliminary reactions of youth who have participated in the program. This report is an analysis of responses to all questionnaires received from the start of the program in the fall of 1979 through January 31, 1980. The questionnaire is divided into a preliminary section covering demographic and social information and three major parts containing various types of program-specific questions. The latter three parts of the questionnaire are designed to measure overall views of the program, the extent to which clients identify with the inmates, inmate credibility, effectiveness of particular educational aspects of the program, and whether clients feel their curiosity about prison life has been satisfied by the experience. Clients showed an overall positive reaction to the program. A large proportion indicated they felt they were more likely to stay out of trouble as a result of the program. These results only indicate that clients had a favorable first impression of the program. The long-range impact of the program on attitudes and behavior must await implementation of a rigorous research design. Tabular data are provided, and the questionnaire is appended.