J.I.T. OUTREACH PROGRAM: 04/26/12

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, April 26, 2012

Management Issues, part 3

General Observations

SMU II appears to be the only institution in the United States that provides a super maximum-security environment for youthful offenders. However, this level of security is more a function of the way Arizona has chosen to manage and provide programs for this population than a reflection of the nature of the offenders. Although violent and disruptive, the offenders housed in SMU II are not significantly different from the juvenile offenders found in the segregation units of most maximum-security juvenile correctional facilities across the country. SMU II’s innovative approach to programming for these difficult-to-manage youth is unique. The juvenile unit at SMU II functions as a controlled setting for the delivery of services to juveniles who have been disruptive to the general facility population.

Within the tightly controlled context of a super maximum-security facility, SMU II staff have developed programs that complement the facility security. Staff use the control aspects of the environment to increase incentives to participate in educational and treatment programs. The program offerings are well developed, are specific to population needs, and have written criteria to evaluate progress and performance. Moreover, the offenders' progress through these programs is connected to the reclassification of the offender back to the general population. The concerns that might be expressed about the impact of a maximum-security environment on youth appear to be substantially mitigated by the quality of the programs offered at the facility and the incentives for offenders to use these offerings productively. The enhanced control and discipline of SMU II may provide the degree of structure required to successfully control and provide program services for certain types of youthful offenders.

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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.