Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jul 2002
Source: Fayetteville Observer-Times (NC)
Copyright: 2002 Fayetteville Observer-Times
Contact:  http://www.fayettevillenc.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/150
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

JUVENILE JUSTICE

The Old Ways Aren't Always The Best Ways

A few years ago North Carolina looked at a blue-ribbon commission's report 
and promised to improve its juvenile justice system.

But a budget crisis arrived to hinder the effort. The Department of 
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention must eliminate 100 jobs. The 
original idea was to give these young people more attention, not less of 
it. But times are tough and people are suffering -- children among them. 
But the storm cloud had a silver lining at Samarkand Manor in western Moore 
County. The state's only coed juvenile detention center will become an 
all-girls facility to save on staff costs. That may be good or bad; it's 
too soon to say. But here's the good news: The program at Samarkand will 
move away from the "correctional" model, to a "therapeutic" one. That is 
progress.

Many of the girls who end up at Samarkand have been physically and sexually 
abused. Some have drug and mental problems. Before they got into the 
trouble that brought them to Samarkand, many were victims of crime. Others 
had untreated emotional troubles, which caused them to act out or to be at 
higher risk of drug use.

Locking them in without helping them was locking them out of a productive 
life. Even if they don't want help -- at first -- they ought to get it.

Samarkand will bring in an intensive substance-abuse program. Vocational 
training will be offered. All of these developments sound promising.

The therapeutic approach is wisest for youth. The correctional formula is 
better suited for adult prisons, and even then, it isn't especially 
effective. Adult addicts are also repeat offenders when their drug problems 
aren't addressed.

It is difficult to believe that North Carolina thinks that locking up 
children -- some as young as 10 -- is the ideal way to redirect troubled 
lives. It isn't.

These children need counseling and direction. State budget constraints 
shouldn't keep them from it.
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