Topic: Juvenile Jam / suicidal juveniles

It is my experience that, for the most part, we juvenile corrections officers offer more in the way of actual “care” than the majority of our kids get at home. They have access to mental health professionals, religious services, drug and alcohol therapy, not to mention programming options and just regular healthy food and hygiene. These minors have very little impulse control and often harbor very real fears of gang conflicts awaiting them on the “outs”. Then of course there are the myriad of other emotional trials that any teenager faces, girlfriends breaking up with them, family problems, etc. We line staff don’t want to see anyone kill themselves, but if one is determined and ill enough, they will find a way despite our efforts to help.

Topic: Juvenile Jam / gang assessment

I appreciate your input and it is probably right on. It just gets very frustrating when our mission is to try and reintegrate these guys back into the community and all we are really doing is warehousing gang members and sending the same gang members back into the community to terrorize.

Topic: Juvenile Jam / gang assessment

I work at a juvenile facility housing over a hundred 16-18 year olds in a dorm-type setting. There are 6 “dorms” and when a kid comes in they check gang affiliation and rivals. Then the minor is placed on one side of the facility or the other based on this info. Over half of our population are in a gang and many are on “gang-terms” regarding their probation. My issue is this, it appears that separating minors based on their gang affiliation serves only to re-inforce the gang member mentality and gives the minor a sense of empowerment for engaging in this behavior. I am curious as to how other facilities deal with this issue and are there any evidence-based intake procedures that work better than this?