The History of Capital Punishment and Youth Crime vs. Alternative Programs for Youth Incarceration, Week 1, Post #4

I believe that the alternative incarceration and treatment programs for youth are valuable and innovative ways to provide a rehabilitative resource versus simply a punitive punishment. The boys home located in the state of Florida provided a way for the offenders to pay back to the victims restitution by working. I think that it's valuable to provide a juvenile with a sense of pride in work at the same time fulfilling restitution commitments to their victims. Counselors at the Waverly Regional Youth Center use the model of "rehabilitated" instead of just "doing time" for determining when a juvenile offender should be released back into the care of their parents or into the community. I believe that though there isn't a lot of follow up statistical data on offenders released from such alternative incarceration facilities, I think that the success rate is significantly higher than those in a more traditional juvenile prison facility.

I also believe that introducing and effectively providing offenders with therapy, positive social interaction, group participation and other therapeutic avenues, allow the juvenile to become socially connected and having interpersonal relationships they would otherwise not receive elsewhere. Juveniles at the Waverly Regional Youth Center participate in activities that assist them with breaking the cycle of victimization through therapy (Missouri's Different Approach to Juvenile Justice, 2009).

Another benefit to a facility that's based more on a treatment model is being able to provide attention to mental health services that might otherwise be overlooked. Of the more than 600,000 youth processed through juvenile detention centers each year, 70 percent suffer from mental health disorders (Neil Hernandez, 2008). 

I believe more could be done to identify juveniles that have a higher probability of becoming a juvenile offender.  Identifying risk factors at an early age such as restlessness, aggression, impulsiveness, substance abuse and implementing a plan for intervention could possibly help reducing a future act of crime and violence.