Pubdate: Tue, 16 Apr 2002
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2002 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  http://www.sunspot.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Braxton Andrews
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

CLOSING YOUTH JAILS MAY BE UNREALISTIC

The writer of the letter "It's time to shut down the juvenile facilities 
that harm inmates" (April 7) is correct when she says that abuse and 
neglect should not be tolerated in juvenile facilities. However, her letter 
implies that community programs are rarely tried for juvenile offenders. 
The fact is that most judges send kids to these facilities as a last resort.

Many of the kids have been sentenced to community detention, home detention 
and other community programs before being sent to a juvenile facility. And 
judges have often sent the kids to one or more drug treatment program 
before they are incarcerated.

Unfortunately, these kids often return to their old ways once released from 
treatment. And in many cases these kids have violated their probation 
several times before they are sent to a detention facility.

I think that the juvenile judges often get frustrated when they see the 
same kids over and over again, and they do not know what else to do.

Closing down the big facilities sounds good. But is it realistic?

Braxton Andrews, Baltimore
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