ALLENDALE, MICH.¿When the state of Michigan opened its first juvenile prison in July 1999, Bruce Bikle (BICK-lee) was only cautiously optimistic about the results of the facility.
The facility is based in Baldwin and run by the private Wackenhut Corrections Corp. of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Bikle, a professor of Criminal Justice at Grand Valley State University and an expert on direct supervision jails, says it makes sense to put younger offenders together, but he has a wait-and-see attitude about whether the new facility will make an impact in reducing juvenile crime.
Bikle lists four elements of a correctional program that are essential for rehabilitating juvenile offenders. He says programs should have both duration and intensity, because you can't fix problems overnight or in only 30 minutes per day. Young criminals also need to face consequences if they don't play by the rules in a corrections program. And, Bikle insists, adequate follow up in the community is most critical to rehabilitating young criminals.
I predict that juvenile prisons may be a little better than adult corrections, but not much, says Bikle. The reasons that kids will do better once they're out are not in the hands of the prison, but the community. Some people aren't ready¿they have no place to live, no job, no transportation. As I tell my students, give me your credit cards and the keys to your home and car, I'll leave you with a driver's license and $200 and come back to me in three weeks and tell me you haven't committed a crime.
Bikle says communities need to be prepared to handle other issues for released prisoners, including an abusive family situation, substance abuse problems, mental health, and a lack of social skills and job education.
Bikle says the theory behind juvenile prisons is sound. The idea is to isolate young people to intervene in their lives and attitudes early, instill them with discipline, and provide them with job skills, similar to what the military provided young people before the 1970s. But he questions the use of privately run institutions that may place a profit motive before providing the best service.
Most juveniles come into the system once and then leave, Bikle points out. The repeat offenders eventually end up in the adult system. Private juvenile prisons won't be better or worse because they're private or focused on juveniles. The real difference will be if they can meld programs and discipline so that kids coming out stay out of trouble and move on with their lives.
