Juvenile Detention Center - Research Paper Example

Juvenile Detention Center During court hearings, some juveniles are directly released to the community under community-based programs of rehabilitation. For the juveniles who pose a threat to the society, they are taken to supervised juvenile detention centers. There are two types of detention centers: secure confinement and secure detention. In secure detention, the juveniles are detained in the facility for a short period while awaiting present trial hearings and other placement decisions. Keeping the juveniles in detention that is secure ensures community safety and court appearances (LaRusso, Romer & Selman, 2008). Secure confinement indicates that the court has committed a juvenile into the secure juvenile correctional facility’s custody for duration of a specific program that can run over a few months or many years. The detention of juveniles does not intend to be punitive; rather, they receive care that is consistent with that of the parent in the secure custody. The local jurisdiction or the state have the responsibility of providing recreation, counseling, education, assessment, health services and other required services in a youth’s maintenance and well-being in their custody. Reservations in the secure detention are for the juveniles who pose a threat to the safety of the public. Status offenders like juveniles who are charged with alcohol possession or running away from home may be held for only 24 hours or less. There are five types of residential programs in which juveniles are detained. These programs include camps, detention, corrections, residential treatment and community based. The wide placement variety options are because there is no uniform in these programs (Lissitz, Green, 1975). The youths are supposed to be accorded the appropriate services either in confinement facilities or in the detention centers. The services available differ from the different facilities but generally, the services and programs provided are geared towards the juvenile needs. The function of the facilities is to rehabilitate the youth. The service that offers primary rehabilitation is education and it is mandatory to the detained youth (Marx, 1998). The juvenile facilities that run schools, which are highly effective, provide general equivalency diploma preparation, high school curriculum, special education and opportunities of vocational training. The issues of major concerns in these centers are ineffectiveness and overcrowding. The facilities can create instability regarding simple logistics and become unstable and it becomes challenging to the administration (Lissitz, Green, 1975). Denton County Juvenile Detention Center (DCJDC) offers secure and safe short-term care for the adjudicated delinquent juveniles or the alleged delinquent juveniles who are awaiting the court’s disposition. It minimizes the confinement’s negative effects. Adjudicated juveniles are offered long-term treatment in this center through a program known as Post-Adjudication (LaRusso, Romer and Selman, 2008). The level of administration of the Denton County Juvenile Detention Center consists of one Deputy Director, 5 shift leaders and 4 shift supervisors. The unit responsible for intake contains seven probation officers who are certified whereas the counseling unit consists of three counselors who work on a full time basis. There is 1 transport officer who is certified and 25 certified officers of detention. The facility has a 48-bed capacity, which provides a disciplined and structured setting for females and males. The center’s goal is to provide good education, life-building skills that are positive like; voluntary religious services, personal hygiene, nutrition and individual based counseling. The center has 4 units of housing and each unit has a common area of living and sleeping rooms that are individual with 12 juveniles bed space in each unit (Loukas, Suzuki and Horton, 2006). Female and male detainees are given separate sleeping and living areas. The four units have classrooms adjoining them and amongst the staff are district teachers from Denton Independent School. The operations of this center are based on a program of behavior management. The program’s purpose is maintaining an environment that is structured and teaches social and at the same time enacting consequences for non-compliance (Marx, 1998). The daily activities routine is based broadly on the program of behavior management. Some of the activities include: physical training, cleaning common and individual living units, library and first time offenders program. Legal guardians or immediate family members are allowed to visit weekly. The visitors provide, as a rule, a photo ID for purposes of security. The center has a cafeteria, a gymnasium, an obstacle course and basketball court in order to provide outdoor and indoor activities for the juveniles who are detained. The school enrolls 49 high and middle school students ranging from the 6th-12th grade. In 2010, the school overall AYP met the Yes status. The school’s administrator is Paige Boroughs and the school’s website is www.dentonisd.org. The school’s operational details are that it runs as an alternative school. The rough estimate of spending per pupil is about $8,861. The rate of graduation is 77.1% and the rate of dropouts is 0.8%. The number of students who have been enrolled here is 22,825 and the student per teacher is 12.5. The total “equivalent” teachers who are full time is 12.9 and the average ratio of student-to-teacher ratio is 3:8. The student breakdown in terms of gender is 39 (79.6%) males and 10 (20.4%) females. The eligibility of a student free lunch breakdown is about 20.4% for those eligible for reduced or fee lunch. The number of students in 6th grade is 2%, 8th grade is 12.2%, 9th grade is 46.9%, 10th grade is 26.5%,11th grade is 10.2% and 12th grade is 2%. The students are offered tests upon admission into this center in order to measure their tested current grade level especially in mathematics and reading. Full participation in family or individual counseling is mandatory as per the education plan. The students have a dress code, which requires them to wear black combat boots, military fatigues and white plain t-shirts. Upon the completion of Denton program, the students who are supposed to continue under probation supervision will receive the services of the probation according to conditions and terms of their probation (McEvoy, 2000). A special analysis of the student performance and behavior within the detention center was my centre of interests. I carried out a study, using the following methods of data collection; questionnaires to avoid embarrassment to the respondents who were ashamed of being directly interviewed and for purposes of confidentiality. I also interviewed some student and members of staff who did not have problems with direct conversation. With this, I was able to pose in-depth questions, investigate feelings and motives and make assessments depending on the respondent’s facial expression and tone of voice (Loukas, Suzuki and Horton, 2006). Lastly, I carried out a case study in order to gather the past background information, analyze the situation at present and highlight the remedial action to be taken. The evidence of the study I carried out suggests that, this center’s academic performance is average. Like in the 8th grade, the math test performance in 2010 was at 58% whereas the same was at 50% in 2009. The same math test performance in the 9th grade was a notch lower at 31% in 2010 and 60% in 2009 (Kären, Hess and Drowns, 2009). Other subjects’ performances were a little above average like the science test in the 10th grade, which was at 57% in 2010 and 71% in 2008.and the social studies, which was at 88% in 2010 and 73% in 2009. As much as some subjects were a little above average, the combination of all the school’s grade resulted in an average performance (McEvoy, 2000). The students’ relations with the teachers are another factor that affects the academic performance. Some students felt that some teachers treated them with respect and cared about them and this would lead to good performances as the teachers’ payback. However, other students felt that some teachers harshly punish them during classes and their bad utterances affect students negatively (Samaha, 2005). From the teachers’ point of view, they at times become disenchanted since they feel like they possess little control over circumstances and conditions that weaken the achievement of the student. Some students are very stubborn and difficult to handle and this puts the teachers on the spot since fruitful results are expected from them at the end of the detention period, yet the students do not seem to care. The teacher’s experience in the detention centers contributed to some extent the capability of student management. This is not an implication that the new teachers do not deliver, they actually adapt fast enough with the help of their older colleagues. In this detention center, the teachers’ experiences were as follows; those with 1-5 years of experience were at 38.9%, 6-10 years experience were at 31.1%, 11-20 years of experience were at 14.4% and those with more than 20 years of experience were at15.6% (Meeks, Heit & Page, 2003). The school environment is another factor that was highlighted in the study. In this center, students measure their environment’s holistic qualities because of the ability to ensure that students feel respected and supported. The assessment further includes the center’s skill in creating students’ forums in order to express themselves and the ability to criticize the students without hurting their feelings. Other factors that featured in this study include safety measures of the school and student behavior. Students might not explore and nurture their academic prowess while living in fear of their safety. The security threats could be within the center where some students bully others or threats from outside. Participation in extra-curricular activities like debating, attending spirit and academic groups, performing arts, cheerleading amongst other activities goes a long way in curbing gang activity (Samaha, 2005). In the case of student behavior, most of the respondents felt vulnerable to attacks while in the school’s restrooms. Most of them stay away even when in dire need of resting. Others prefer resting in groups with their partners’ loyalty to count on. Class performance is affected by violence occurring away from the center. Students felt that with less bullying and high safety levels, they would record better performances (Meeks, Heit and Page, 2003). Comparisons with other detention centers reveal that all rules and regulations are almost similar especially in areas of admission, education and dressing codes. However, there are also differences like in cases of visitation schedules and the capacity a center can hold. In the Collin county juvenile centre, the juveniles surrender their clothing, shoes and jewelry and put on the center’s specified attires. Male juveniles get a regulation haircut and facial hair shaving within 24 hours of their admission. The juveniles are required to attend school at least 4 hours daily. The educational services are given by McKinney Independent School District. The juveniles participate and attend to all the educational programs. Counseling services are provided by in-house services. An evaluation in psychology is conducted on admission and it includes every child’s treatment. Guardians and parents are supposed to participate in family sessions of counseling. The provided education is about healthy functioning of families, life skills and adaptive strategies of coping (Schwartz and Barton, 1994). The visitation routine is followed 7 days in a week. There are scheduled days of visitation where a child is given a 30-minute visit. The visitors are supposed to call prior to coming over to ensure the child’s eligibility for visitation. Legal guardians and parents are the only approved visitors during any intake. All visitors must have IDs issued by the state and must be on the list of approval (Roland and Trulson, 2005). In concluding this study, there are several recommendations that if implemented will improve the juvenile facilities and they will yield the aspired results. Amongst the recommendations is elevating standards of education as a strategy to reduce school violence. Schools in which gang activity is rampant, students are distracted from performing schoolwork and therefore bad performance results. Regarding the teacher-student relationship, additional resources that aid in coping should be given to teachers in tough environments of learning. Incentives for teachers that aid in involvement of students activities outside class like sports, clubs amongst other activities cultivate teacher-student relationships that are more cordial (Schwartz and Barton, 1994). Regarding security, locking exit and entrance doors demonstrates reduction of gang activities in schools. Implementation of more and more extra-curricular activities especially those that enhance the school’s pride help in reducing violence in schools. As for the security threats resulting from student behavior, janitors should be trained to discretely monitor the activities that are suspicious. This would help the administration in shunning any mischievous activities planned by the students. References Kären, Hess & Drowns. Juvenile Justice. Stamford: Cengage Learning.2009. Print LaRusso, Romer & Selman. “Teachers as builders of respectful school climates: Implications for adolescent drug use norms and depressive symptoms in high school.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 37.4 (2008): 386-398.Print. Lissitz, Green. Effect of the number of scale points in reliability: A Monte Carlo approach. Journal of Applied Psychology. 60.1(1975):10-13.Print Loukas, Suzuki and Horton. Examining school connectedness as a mediator of school climate effects. Journal of Research on Adolescence. 16.3(2006): 491-502.Print Marx, Frelick. Health is Academic: A Guide to Coordinated School Health Programs. New York, NY: Teachers College Press,1998. Print McEvoy, Arthur. Antisocial behavior, academic failure, and school climate. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. 8.3(2000): 130-140.Print Meeks, Heit and Page. Comprehensive School Health Education. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.2003.Print Roland, Trulson. Juvenile Justice: The System, Process, And Law. Stamford: Cengage Learning. 2005. Print Samaha, Joel. Criminal Justice. Stamford: Cengage Learning. 2005. Print Schwartz, Barton. Reforming Juvenile Detention: No More Hidden Closets.Ohio: Ohio State University Press. 1994. Print Read More