J.I.T. OUTREACH PROGRAM: Major Findings

The Mission:

We are seeking to help them strive Educationally, Economically, Politically, to build Social Development Skills, Organizational Skills and Unity. And if we use these six (6) elements I just mentioned as a guiding light, we believe that they will grow and develop into our future leaders of tomorrow. In the visions of this program and through this programs’ vision they’ll become a reckoning force of power beyond boundaries and without measures. If they trust, look, listen, and learn to see everything placed before them in its entire form, and to that all they have to do is keep their eyes, ears, and mind open and they will learn. All they have to do is use everything they have learned from our program to gain an advantage in life. With the concept of the five (5) P’s, which is our motto and stands for: Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. Thus, meaning if we Properly Prepare them for the future we can Prevent Poor Performance in their lives--by giving them stepping stones instead of stumbling blocks--and that poor performance is being involved in drugs, guns, robberies, and several other crimes and mishaps and going in and out of jail. So, we are asking you, the parents and community, to lend a helping hand in making the J.I.T. Outreach Program a success and impact in giving our children a chance to live an auspicious, propitious, and fortunate future!!

Our main focus is helping these juveniles to seek a better path in life other than that of the streets; but in order to do so; we’ll need the help of those juveniles’ parents. If we show them Love, Life, Loyalty, Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding, we believe that we can capture their way of thinking at an early stage in life, we can help mold them into our future Lawyers, Doctors, Teachers, Police Officers, Fire Fighters, Governors, Senators, Contractors, etc. As we all know, it takes a village to raise child, and with the help of the parents and community, J.I.T Outreach Program will become that village. Even though I was once one of those juveniles involved in the street life, drugs and guns, I have made a major turn-around in my life and I am willing to help these juveniles make that same turn-around in life that I made through my experience. By being a positive role-model and being heavily involved with the children and their families to help keep them from making those same mistakes that I made or end up in one or two places that nobody wants to be: Jail or the Graveyard!!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Major Findings

There is substantial variation in each states’ approaches to dealing with youthful offenders, in terms of definition, legal status, and programming. Staff in adult correctional facilities tend to find youthful offenders more volatile and more difficult to deal with. Integrating programming with a well-designed operating philosophy, as in Arizona, appears to enhance offender acceptance and enthusiasm for programming.

Most residents of surveyed facilities had backgrounds of violence or long criminal histories or both. Diverse strategies were employed to deal with the complex constellation of needs of the youthful offender population. Some systems focused on incentives for programming, whereas others focused on the safety and security of the institution. Older facilities are often challenged to provide sophisticated programming as they are limited by the size and construction of the physical structure. The inmate population brings with it two challenges that must be addressed. First, the serious and violent offense profiles of most youthful offenders pose significant safety and security issues to the operation of the facilities. A structured environment is required to maintain the orderly operation of the facilities, but given the juveniles’ status, management techniques that do not employ massive
force must be used. Second, this population’s significant developmental, emotional, and cognitive issues can be addressed by appropriate programming. Further, the gender-specific needs of girls in the adult correctional system deserve equal attention. The expertise of the staff in these areas appears to be a critical link to the quality of services and the orderly operation of the facility.

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This represents the most thorough examination to date of the issues presented by youth who are incarcerated in adult facilities. The findings include the following:

1. Approximately 107,000 youth (younger than 18) are incarcerated on any given day.

2. Of these, approximately 14,500 are housed in adult facilities. The largest proportions, approximately 9,100 youth, are housed in local jails, & some 5,400 youth are housed in adult prisons.

3. Of the 50 states & the District of Columbia, 44 house juveniles (age 17 & younger) in adult jails & prisons.

4. In recent years, the number of youth in jails has escalated, while the number in prisons has stabilized or declined.

5. The actual number of youth who experience incarceration in an adult prison is much higher than the number shown by a 1-day count, with an estimated 13,876 juvenile state prison admissions in 1997. There are no current estimates of the number of youth admitted to jails each year.

6. In terms of their legal status while incarcerated, 21% were held as adjudicated juvenile offenders or pretrial detainees, & 75% were sentenced as adults.

7. Of the 44 state prison systems that house juveniles as adults, 18 states maintain designated youthful offender housing units.

8. In comparison with the adult prison population, a higher proportion of youth were black (55% of youthful inmates versus 48% of adult inmates) and were convicted of a crime against persons (57 % of youth versus 44% of adult inmates).

9. The vast majority of these youth are age 17 (79%) or age 16 (18%).

10. Approximately 51% of the youthful offender population were housed in dormitory settings, 30% in single cells and 19% in double cells.

11. Health, education, and counseling programs were fairly standard, with little evidence of efforts to customize programs for youthful offenders. A few states operate programs specifically for the most difficult to manage juveniles.