Squires of San Quentin - An Evaluation of a Juvenile Awareness Program

• NCJ Number: 79429
• Author(s): R V Lewis
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 171 pages
• Corporate Author: California Dept of the Youth Authority
• Sale Source: California Dept of the Youth Authority; National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This report evaluates the San Quentin Squires Program, which directly exposes juveniles to prison realities to deter them from delinquency.

Abstract

Evaluation goals were to determine the program's impact on participants' delinquent activity. Like all participants in the Squires Program, the subjects were taken on three consecutive Saturdays to San Quentin Prison, where they toured the facility and participated in a 3-hour rap group with inmate 'squires' assigned to each youth. A classical research design was used in which 108 youths from two California counties were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group. The youths were aged 16 to 17 and had a history of delinquency; experimental subjects were required to complete the entire Squires Program -- all three sessions. Demographic background data on age, ethnicity, number of arrests, types of offenses, and length of time in the juvenile justice system were collected, along with pretest and posttest attitudinal scores regarding the police, school, crime, prison, family, and probation. Subjective appraisals of the program were also obtained from participants and staff who attended. Recidivism data consisted of the number and type of subsequent arrests at 12 months after program completion. Results showed that experimentals experienced more improvement than controls on attitudes toward police, toward crime, and on the Major Scales-Composite Index. Overall, no statistically significant differences were found between experimentals and controls at 12-month behavioral followup. It was clear that the program did not prevent subsequent delinquency among previously very delinquent youth. A secondary finding, however, indicates that lower risk youths showed a positive impact from the program. Both high- and low-risk youths in the experimental group were arrest free for approximately 1 month longer than controls. It is recommended that lower risk youth be sent to the San Quentin Squires Program and that a screening device be developed for the selection of program participants. Tabular data are included. Appendixes contain study instruments and additional documentation.