|
Transition program
to ease overcrowding at training school
(June 2008
Issue)
By Ami Albernaz
In Rhode Island, a plan to revamp the juvenile correction system
is expected to get underway later this month. At the center of the
plan is a new $61 million, state-of-the-art training school facility
in Cranston, which will replace the existing facility.
The new facility has been the subject of some controversy in recent
months, for fear that it is too small. The two-building complex
holds 148 youngsters, fewer than what the Training School population
has been for much of the past two decades, according to The Providence
Journal.
The Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families has
made arrangements to try to prevent overcrowding. Some of the less
serious offenders are to check in at a "day reporting center," in
South Providence, which will provide tutoring, vocational training,
counseling and recreation. Assignments to the reporting center will
be granted by the state's Family Court.
"The purpose behind this transition program is to prepare kids
who have been under intense, 24/7 supervision for release," says
Thomas Bohan, J.D., executive director of the Department of Children,
Youth and Families. "In the Training School, you have a staff that
wakes [the residents] up and says it's time to go to school, time
to go to counseling, time to go to physical education. Some of the
youngsters do extremely well… The reporting center is designed to
give them a taste of freedom and responsibility before they are
released."
The state also plans to make use of six-bed residential programs
for those who do well at the Training School. Placement in these
programs is also dependent on Family Court approval. These staffed
group homes, Bohan says, allow a "greater degree of freedom" than
does the fenced-in Training School, and include "more oversight
than if the youngsters were living on their own."
Overcrowding plagued the current Training School and was part of
the reason for the new facility. Original plans for the new site
called for more than 200 beds, but the number was whittled down
while a plan to boost the number of youngsters accommodated by residential
programs was being considered. After objections quashed the plan,
the lower capacity for the new facility held.
The Training School residents range in age from around 12 to 21.
Some are held for drug possession and theft, while others are held
for violent crimes.
Bohan acknowledges that making room in the Training School by sending
youngsters to the day reporting center or to residential programs
might not always be the best option. He says other "population management
strategies" are in place.
Bohan also realizes that the new Training School and new programs
will be watched as possible models for juvenile correction in the
state.
"It's not simply a matter of moving into two new buildings," he
says. "The first few months, we're going to be looking every day
to see how things are going."
|
