Missouri's sensible approach to juvenile justice

At younger and younger ages, children and teens in the juvenile justice systems of many states are condemned to long terms at large youth detention centers and adult prisons. They languish in cells surrounded by walls and razor wire. Often they are locked down for long periods of the day with no real opportunities for rehabilitation, treatment or education. Many youth become more hardened criminals while incarcerated, and at the end of their sentences, they are released into communities that don't have adequate resources to reintegrate them.

It is a disgrace that this is largely what passes for juvenile justice in many places throughout our nation. But there is a better way.

Mark D. Steward, founder and director of the Missouri Youth Services Institute, and his colleague, Pili Robinson, are lights on the horizon for urgently needed nationwide juvenile justice system reform. Mark served as director of the Missouri Division of Youth Services for more than 17 years until retiring in July 2005.

Their approach to youth incarceration is a sharp departure from most conventional methods. Their rehabilitative and therapeutic youth program has been one of the best success stories in the country. Missouri's juvenile recidivism rate is low, with only 8 percent of those incarcerated coming back into juvenile custody and 8 percent going into Missouri's prisons.

How did Missouri do it? First, it eliminated its huge, rural detention facility that warehoused 2,500 young people. In its place, Missouri established 33 residential facilities and 11 day-treatment centers in five regions. These aren't just smaller prisons; they're designed to provide a dormitory atmosphere for groups of no more than 12 children and teens. Under this system, none of them is more than two hours away from their homes and community services.

The key to Missouri's success is its focus on the development of each child or youth in a positive environment. When you walk into a Missouri juvenile detention facility, there are no cuffs or shackles, no cells, no bars; there are no isolation rooms and no correction officers. What you find instead are youth counselors and team leaders in a dorm-like environment with bunk beds, pillows, couches and carpets, and young people wearing their own clothes, explained Robinson. "We allow kids to be themselves and take them back to being kids," he said, noting that many children are forced by their harsh environments to grow up too fast.

Education and job training are essential components of the program. There are two facilities located on the campuses of women's colleges for girls who go to a residential program with full-time mentoring. While attending high school, they slowly transition directly into college life. Instead of being locked down and locked in, the youth throughout the system participate in community service projects at nursing homes and food banks and take field trips to places like Washington, D.C., and Boston. They sponsor Career Days, Multi-Culture Festivals and their own Olympics.

Much of the rehabilitation involves working through youth peer groups and does away with the idea of adults preaching down to them. The youths learn leadership skills and how to facilitate group sessions. Staff members are trained to facilitate teams of 12 and are prepared to meet the needs of each youth, making referrals to family therapy and substance abuse counseling generally unnecessary.

The Missouri Division of Youth Services also has created a seamless case management system so that once each youth is adjudicated, a single caseworker follows him or her and the family throughout the entire stay in the system, facilitating eventual reentry into the community.

Significantly, this system comes with a considerable cost savings. The annual cost for detaining a youth in Missouri is less than half of what other states pay.

We should stop spending a fortune on large, traditional and non-therapeutic correctional facilities and then releasing youths back into our communities with little done to address their rehabilitation, treatment and education. It makes infinitely more sense to support rehabilitation programs like the Missouri Division of Youth Services, which have high rates of success turning troubled children into productive citizens. We hope that more states and municipalities get that message soon.

Editor's note: Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children's Defense Fund and its Action Council. Learn more about CDF's "Cradle to Prison Pipeline" campaign at www.childrensdefense.org/cradletoprison