History, goals, and programming of juvenile total institutions

Juvenile Total Institutions

Total Institutions ( prisons/jails) juveniles. A. Discuss history B. Goals C. programming youth held . D. Issues/Problems Present facilities Below Guideline paper. 1. Students expected draw information class material scholarly sources journal articles, government websites, NPO websites.

Bortner and Williams (1997)

define a total institution as a physical location such as a prison or a reformatory where all the total needs of the residents are met. The needs of the individuals are mostly physical such as health, clothing, nutrition, shelter, etc. For juveniles, total institutions must be able to meet their educational and psychological needs as the youth. For an institution to quality as a total institution, the totality of the care that is provided in the institutions must be reflected in the round the clock confinement of the residents including holidays and weekends Shoemaker, 2009.

Goffman (1961)

argues that in many different ways, correctional institutions also serve as total institutions because they meet the physical, emotional and psychological needs of the residents. In addition to this, residents are supervised and accounted for during each period of the day or night.

For many years, there has been a fine line between the juvenile and adult justice systems and the history can be traced back to the 18th century where English lawyer William Blackstone differentiated infants and adults. He defined infants as children under the age of seven who were incapable of committing crimes. He also defined children over the age of 14 as being liable to suffer as adults if they were found guilty of a crime. Between the ages of 7 and 14 was a gray zone but it was stated that if the child knew the difference between right and wrong, they could be convicted for the crime committed though in juvenile institutions. The current system of juvenile justice was, however, established in the 19th century when social reformers began to create special facilities for juveniles who were troubled. The first to be formed was the New York House of Refuge in 1825 which was followed by the Chicago Reform School in 1855. This paper deals with total institutions for juveniles and looks at their goals, programs available for the youth and the issues or problems that are present in these facilities ABA Division for Public Education ()

Goals

The goals of the juvenile courts was first defined by Judge Julian Mack in 1909 who was one of the first judges to preside over the first juvenile court that was set in Cook County in Illinois. The goal of the juvenile justice system was thus to ensure the child was aware of the crime they had committed and that they were now in the face of the power of the state. However, the child was also made to know that the actions that were taken by the court were in the best interest of the child and not in any way prejudiced. In this way, the juvenile justice system could be able to bring reforms in the children once they served time for their crime.

The social reformists who were the designers of the juvenile justice system stated that they designed the system to provide protection, care and training for children when the other guardians had failed to play their part "Commonwealth v. Fisher," 1905.

Therefore the juvenile justice system was majorly focused on the need for supervision and rehabilitation of the offender's behavior rather than the offenses that were committed in order to deter future criminal behavior.

The hearings in juvenile courts were thus more informal and social workers, psychologists and probation officers took the place of prosecutors and lawyers to reform juvenile delinquents who were more of a family or social problem than a criminal problem. These parties examined the social history and backgrounds of the children and their families in order to create an accurate assessment of the child's needs and then develop a treatment plan to change the behavior of the delinquents and since the time for reform varied with each child, children are given indeterminate sentences.

Conclusion

The effectiveness of juvenile total institutions has been challenged by several scholars though there are different programs in the institutions which are meant to help transform the children into better citizens of the future. When these institutions were started back in the 18th and 19th centuries, they were designed to provide care to juvenile delinquents in the same way they receive at home yet far from home in order to reform their behavior. This was the major goal of these juvenile total institutions. Other goals included deterring of future illegal behavior and enabling the juvenile delinquents to continue their education despite their status as incarcerated individuals. Juvenile total institutions are designed to provide mental health, education, special education, as well as other programs for the youth to lead to reform of their behavior. Overcrowding is a common phenomenon in juvenile total institutions which causes administrative issues in ensuring peace and tranquility and running these programs. Negative social ties formed between inmates in juvenile total institutions also help to solidify their criminal behavior rather than lead to reforms. As a result of the issues of overcrowding and negative social ties in these juvenile institutions, reform is hard to come by and they have been known to fail in causing reform of juveniles sent into the institutions.