An Essay About Possible Alternatives To Incarceration (Essay Sample)

Alternatives to Incarceration
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Institutional Affiliation
Alternatives to Incarceration
Recent studies point out that almost two million youngsters go through juvenile courts in the United States annually. The juveniles may be detained or incarcerated depending on the seriousness of the offence upon conviction. However, many courts avoid incarcerating delinquents, thus forcing judges to contemplate existing substitutes to imprisonment. This paper examines issues connected to the development of alternatives to juvenile imprisonment. First, it discusses the treatment of delinquents by the justice system throughout history. Secondly, focusses on the economic and historical factors that necessitated alternative rehabilitation. Thirdly, it explains the disparities between the adult and juvenile legal system in the United States. Lastly, it describes alternatives to detention that juvenile courts presently use and the benefits of alternative rehabilitation of juvenile offenders.
Historians estimate that the juvenile justice system began to be distinguished from the adult criminal justice system in 1825 in the United States after the establishment of the New York House of Refuge (Austin, Dedel, & Weitzer, 2005). The aims of the pioneer juvenile centers were to safeguard juveniles against the brutal setting of grown-up jails, to protect them from the bad influence of toughened convicts, and to provide essential discipline and guidance to reform vulnerable youths. In addition to delinquents, juvenile institutions also admitted status offenders who committed offences that relate only to children such as escaping from home or truancy and despondent children. Contemporary juvenile courts still have dominion over the above forms of cases. Even though the initial juvenile hospices were privately managed, the late 1800s saw the domination of public reform schools. The first juvenile court with authority over children was however founded in 1899 in Illinois. By 1925, only two states had not inaugurated juvenile courts. Currently, all states have run their own juvenile courts. (Krisberg and Austin) (1993)
Several unique features characterize juvenile courts. First, the public is barred from attending hearings and the criminal histories of the offenders are sealed to a degree, and often completely, from mature courts. This practice emanates from the philosophy that legal guilt does not exist in juvenile courts, but what is found is only a discovery of delinquency. Second, those condemned by juvenile courts are directed to penal facilities detached from adult criminals. Third, a right to judgment by bail or jury does not exist. Moreover, the right to legal counsel is frequently relinquished. The absence of bureaucratic defense for children is because of the casual nature of pioneering children’s courts, which placed more emphasis on the welfare of the youth over justice. While progress towards reinforcement of the level of due process given to juveniles continues, The Supreme Court still upholds old-fashioned practices of the juvenile court (Krisberg and Austin (1993).
Alternatives to confinement are required for a number of reasons. Described below is crowding which is an economic factor and the unproven effectiveness of incarceration which is a historical factor. Firstly, in the last two decades, the problem of crowding has been experienced in many detention facilities. The number of delinquency cases that led to incarceration increased by 11 percent between 1990 and 1991 while settled cases involving out-of-home residency multiplied by 24 percent. Consequently, about 39 percent of existing facilities experienced overcrowding. Crowding leads to logistical problems for the facilities as staff find it difficult to educate, feed, and provide beds for the detainees. Crowding increases instances of violence amongst the juveniles and it deprives detainees with mental problems off timely treatment.(Austin et al)(pg 2)
Other than crowding, the next factor is the ineffectiveness of detention. High recidivism rates have been recorded in research on traditional detention institutions. Approximately fifty to seventy percent of previously detained youth are rearrested within 1 or 2 years following their discharge. Between the 1960s and mid-1990s, considerable investigation showed that community-based procedures such as probation and group homes were more effectual than long-established rehabilitation programs in minimizing recidivism and enhancing community adjustment. Even research that yielded unimpressive outcomes proved that community-based rehabilitation produced results close to those of old-fashioned training institutions but at notably lowered costs.(Austin et al)(pg 3)
The aforementioned factors have contributed towards the formulation of alternatives to secure detention such as, Residential treatment, community based treatment and therapy programs and intensive supervision programs. Residential treatment involves the use of community housing centers to give twenty-four hour supervision to offenders. An example is Vision Quest, which is a nationwide program that puts juvenile delinquents in outdoor programs for several months after which they spend five months in a communal home. The purpose of the group home is to prime the youth for assimilation into their families. .(Austin et al)(pg 20)
The second alternative is community-based treatment and therapy. A form of community-based therapy is Multisystemic therapy. MST is designed for children with critical behavior disorders and it focuses on a variety of factors associated with juvenile illegal habits. The youth stay at home where treatment that focuses on their needs and individual problems is administered.MST also aims at encouraging parental supervision. An example of MST in practice is the Family and Neighborhood Services...