ALTERNATIVE Lifestyles - juvenile justice

Parks & Recreation, Nov, 1999 by Joseph A. Wilson

It was 100 years ago that the United States decided juvenile offenders should be treated differently from adults. Juvenile justice history in the United States clearly indicates that treating juveniles as adults does little to promote their healthy social development, nor does it discourage them from committing further offenses.

The year 2000 also marks the 100th anniversary of the juvenile court in the United States. The first juvenile court, founded in Illinois, was part of a reform movement. Reformers of that time believed that children committed crimes not because they wanted to, but because of extraneous circumstances such as poverty, neglect, and poor parenting. They also believed that there was a profound difference between incorrigible adults and reformable youth, that a system was needed to deal with "delinquent" children, and that juvenile courts should act as welfare agencies, not as punitive institutions.

Today's juvenile court system is a far cry from the juvenile system envisioned a century ago. Historically, the juvenile court system dealt with three types of children: delinquent, status offender (runaways and social truants), and dependant (abused and neglected). Today it has become more punitive -- and far more complicated. Trends in the juvenile justice system have resulted in courts providing more punishment and less rehabilitation.

Incarceration or other punitive measures are not the total solution. Violence is learned behavior, and certain kinds of life experiences, or "risk factors," tend to form distinctive patterns in violent offenders' developmental history. The more risk factors a child is exposed to, the greater his or her potential of exhibiting antisocial or violent behavior. Risk-reducing activities have been found most effective in preventing juvenile violence and crime.

Crime prevention by "filling playgrounds, not prisons" is an effective alternative to processing juveniles through the justice system. It costs as much as $30,000 a year to keep a juvenile locked up. By developing community-based alternatives to detention, many states have been successful in reducing recidivism and helping young people become productive citizens. These programs are almost always much less expensive than confinement.

Fifty-seven percent of violent crimes committed by juveniles take place on school days. In fact, one in five such crimes occurs during the four hours that follow the end of the school day. On nonschool days, juvenile violence increases throughout the afternoon and early evening, usually reaching its peak between 8 and 10 p.m.

In the future, engaging youth away from crime and crime away from youth are goals that all communities will share. Fortunately a number of programs and strategies can and do make a significant difference.

For example, the Police Athletic League, or PAL, uses sports as a pathway to producing adults who will be good employees, welcome neighbors, and responsible citizens. While sports today produce both positive and negative results in society, the good outweighs the bad. Sensibly played, coached, and encouraged, sports can be part of the solution, not the problem.

But sports are -- and will continue to be -- just one element in building character and instilling values. According to Americans for the Arts a nonprofit organization dedicated to "building a better America through the arts," involvement with afterschool arts programs may significantly reduce and deter juvenile delinquent behavior. As determined by the recent report "Arts Programs for At-Risk Youth: How U.S. Communities are Using the Arts to Rescue Their Youth and Deter Crime," released by Americans for the Arts and the YouthARTS national demonstration project, a collaboration of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, National Endowment for the Arts, and Americans for the Arts, art programs provide positive, productive, and time-consuming activities for youth, helping them stay out of trouble and gain self-discipline.

In an effort to prevent delinquent behavior in at-risk youth, community organizations have implemented youth art programs to divert young people from gang and drug activity, provide a more cost-effective approach to traditional programs such as midnight basketball and juvenile boot camps, reduce truancy and improve academic performance, and build critical self-discipline, communication, and job skills.

The Baltimore Police Department, along with members of the business and philanthropic communities, launched an ambitious initiative to reduce the problems of juvenile crime and violence and improve the lives of children and teens, particularly those living in the typically at-risk neighhorhoods of Baltimore's inner city.

An innovative partnership of public and private interests provided funding to transform a former convenience store in northeastern Baltimore into the first center of the city's Police Athletic League. In response to this pilot project's success, additional centers were acquired as fast as they could be absorbed. Currently, PAL operates 27 centers and serves the needs of more than 7,000 boys and girls. Eventual plans call for at least one PAL center in each of the city's 29 police sectors. Collectively, these centers will serve more than 10,000 young people, representing approximately 10 percent of the school-age population of Baltimore.