Free Criminal Justice Program Proposal Essay Sample

Problem

Juveniles have long been housed in the same facilities as adult offenders, in fact this practice dates back to the late 18th early 19th century and until recently was still a problem in some facilities today. Some of the juveniles that were housed in the same places as serious offenders were not in jail themselves for very serious offenses however there were no other opportunities as juvenile facilities did not exist. As an opposition to these two pioneers came up with the idea to design a new youth oriented institution which later in 1825 became a reality and was called the New York House of Refuge. More of these institutions were erected however they all faced the same issue of to many youths and so the idea of a school that would focus on educating troubled youth was proposed as an alternative and so reform schools were born. During the 1980s when youth were getting into more trouble society took this as a form of rebellion because they were not being punished hard enough and decided to once again house young people in adult prisons in the 1990s with no regard to the severity of the offense (Maccallair, 2015).

Program to resolve this problem

New acts have been passed that prevent children from being detained in the same facility as adults with the exception of short holding periods. However some of the jails that house adult offenders do not have reasonable separation requirements available and one stipulation of the exception is that children housed in the same facility must have no “sight or sound” of adult prisoners (Cclp.org, 2015). Since some prisons do not have this as an option and the children have to go somewhere some suggestions point toward educational schools suggesting that research shows that time in prison and jail facilities has no positive impact on youth. To determine which of these is more productive and beneficial for youth in the long run it is important to gather data.

Data collection Methodologies

Data gathering methods and data analysis would be the two methodologies that best define the approach to research that will produce a quality theory on what will work for juveniles. The best method would be to do secondary research on existing data since the data on this issue is extensive and dates back to the 1800s (Kleck, 2015). The previous data shows that past methods did not always work and housing minor offending juveniles with hardened criminals was not only dangerous but unproductive and that reform schools were more successful and safe as an option. To identify the problem data must be collected on the amount of juveniles in the system currently for comparison with past rates, estimates on future rates and to assess the issue of overcrowding. Data must also be collected on how the juveniles being housed in adult facilities in the past affected recidivism rates and if implementing the first reform schools changed this number.
When collecting data the people that are involved will make a significant impact on the findings. It will be important to involve counsels who specialize in juvenile offenders and reducing rates of recidivism, teachers for these reform schools and even guards at the prisons where adults are housed. The knowledge that these people can contribute will make a huge impact on understanding why this change is important and why reform schools are needed rather than more correctional facilities for children that are committing minor offenses. When analyzing data the personnel involved should be non-bias and have no interest in the specific topic for discussion. This is important to have a professional opinion which is not altered by personal feelings that can be involved when dealing with juvenile delinquents who are sometimes difficult for some people to deal with. It is can be equally difficult for a person to make a distinction between the crime that children make and adults make, to some crime is crime so finding a scientist or group of researchers that do not inflict any personal feelings into data assessment is important. If data is collected and managed properly it can be very useful when making budgets or deciding where funds should be used and deciding what staff should be used and how fro a crucial development of a reliable and useful facility.
In conclusion the past shows that there used to be no difference in children from adults as to where a prisoner is housed. However over time this became an issue as overcrowding became real with higher crime rates. Since then changes have been made but so far no definite solution has been imposed and shown to work which represents a need for data collection to decide what type of institution’s appropriate for juvenile offenders who are faced with unrealistic situations now.

References

Cclp.org,. (2015). Center for Children's Law and Policy - Our Work. Retrieved 12 January 2015, from http://www.cclp.org/JJDPA_reauthorization.php
Elias, G. (2007). U.S. Department of Justice National Institute How to collect and analyze data: a Manual for Sheriffs and Jail a dministrators (4th ed., pp. 4-6). National Institute of corrections. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.nicic.gov/Library/021826.pdf
Kleck, G. (2015). NCJRS Abstract - National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Ncjrs.gov. Retrieved 12 January 2015, from https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=236272
Maccallair, D. (2015). Juvenile Justice History — Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. Cjcj.org. Retrieved 12 January 2015, from http://www.cjcj.org/education1/juvenile-justice-history.html