Texas can continue saving money and protecting public safety by renewing support for probation departments' TYC diversion initiatives that more than pay for themselves as they enable TYC to continue downsizing.
For example, intensive in-home programs with both a probation officer and family therapist making frequent home visits significantly reduce recidivism and cost a fraction of TYC. As such local programs take root, juvenile crime continues to drop, and TYC commitments have fallen 38 percent this year. Every youth redirected from TYC saves taxpayers about $80,000 a year.
For all but the most serious and high-risk offenders, incarceration often increases reoffending, as lower-risk youths are negatively influenced by higher-risk peers and positive bonds with their family, church and community are frayed. While effective in-home programs address the lack of discipline and other underlying family issues typically at the root of delinquency, these problems may remain unsolved after a nonviolent youth stays for an average of 11 months at TYC and returns to the same setting.
Texas has made remarkable progress in lowering juvenile crime while reducing costs. Policymakers can build on these gains for public safety and taxpayers by continuing to strengthen community-based programs that hold juveniles accountable through proven supervision and treatment strategies, ensuring that the most costly destination for Texas youths is truly the last resort.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Levin: Incarceration alternatives for youth save money, reduce recidivism
Marc Levin from the Texas Public Policy Foundation has an op ed in the Houston Chronicle arguing that Texas can save money on juvenile justice and reduce recidivism by limiting incarceration to the most serious offenders. The article closes:
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29 comments:
It's a good advice.
There needs to be a TDCJ youth division unit where the most violent youth go- if they don't work the program then at age 18 or 19- put them in the adult unit- if they could get a taste or reality check from their next door neighbor occasionally-- they might decide to get their act together-- TYC as it stands now is a failing agency that wastes too much money on programs that aren't working-- this article is an excellent one- keeps the kids at home and work with the family-- if the family doesn't change- then your setting the kid up for failure when you send him home--
The book "Raped by The State" predicted that TYC would collapse from its self - imposed implosion. The data seems to agree with the books information. Well done.
i heard over at Ron Jackson Unit II that security staff are having to work the dorm because of JCO shortage- doesn't that jeopardize the safety and security of all involved-- there needs to be a change in TYC before someone gets hurt- keeping kids at home and treating them makes more sense if their non-violent offenders-
You are right...check Authorhouse.com, for "Raped by The State', it states basically the same thing. Thanks.
all i can say is, and this is from personal experience, if tyc will treat an anyone the way they treated me and others that i knew, and it was poor, substandard, and unfair, then how could they have a culture, that allows for a chance for us to treat the youth any other way, or a fair way? i saw raises, promotions, hiring of tdcj persons with no job descriptions, owens, kimbrough, popes, and nedelkoffs, martins hired in a heartbeat, and i saw the pressure to release dangerous youth, perry, madden, and whitmire all go down a path of no return. i have lost faith in government. based on the way tyc treated & treats many of its youth, employees, and through its past decisions. if they have and do treat the current youth on the same basis that they have treated many in the past, with the same tone and tenure as i have observed, and experienced, then that is what this diatribe is based on. a few stiff drinks to boot. tyc needs to be changed in a major way, and those without credentials directing decitions in co need to be confronted. maybe they are not even there. tyc altered my life abruptly and traumatically, and in a major and negative manner. i am now a voice for better community treatment approach. and frankly, under pope, i think that is really what we got anyway. so many persons were quickly pushed out and released, and because of that they were probably my and your next door neighbor anyway. they eithor reformed and aged out or maybe they are in prison today. the treatment approach was killed by the leaders so maybe i am not that far off. tyc is therefore based on a negative and non productive past with no recent history of ethical principles so lets look for a new solution and quit trying to make that tyc wheel roll. i am for community treatment ideas. since i basically only have contact through this site, it is difficult to really know the current state of affairs. all for treatment.
The key to rehabilitating youth offenders is education. However, TYC considers education to be an afterthought, even though 46 percent of the youth there are special education. So, what's the Austin CO solution? Dissolve special education resource classes and threaten education personnel at the units with their jobs if they try to identify any of these students as needing these classes.
I don't know. What do you expect from a state agency that exists to employ people in Austin that don't have a clue as to what they are doing? The scary thing is, maybe they know EXACTLY what they are doing!
There is a TDCJ youth division unit, for youth certified as adults. They get little treatment and are at even higher risk for recidivism than TYC youth. What's the point.
When the Texas National Press published "Raped by The State", there were surprises all over the state. Leaders were pushing their peers out from their desks so they could get under it.
Is this Blog the "Raped By The State" advertisement center ?
the point is their not getting rehabilitated in TYC either-- the new Conextions program is a joke- it teaches the kids "entitlement" and they get rewarded for bad behavior
He paid to have that rag published.
Jealousness eats away from the inside. Best see a doctor or get over it.
I'm not jealous of the man that worked for 26 years at the agency he now maligns. He was part of the problem and not the solution. You can by "Raped by the State" if you want to, but Charmin is cheaper and more effective.
939...Fools are everywhere....you are a good example. Best anyway...you need it.
10:24
There certainly needs to be improvement but there is more treatment now than ever.
09:16 - You have been brainwashed it appears. Almost eveyone else in TYC disagrees with your comment. The current treatment is the worst it has ever been. Get current on the truth before you post falsehoods as you have.
lmao, who'd be *jealous* of anyone who retired in an entry level position and was even denied a lateral transfer into the same position at a different facility? lol, when he says RBTS, what he really means is he got punked.... entry level ranty, run along.
No irons in the fire here, but 9:07has been punked by responding to obvious trolls. You have been caught and unknowingly become the 'punk' of this string. Whose butt is the blackist?
In your as_-hole opinion. You got that part right a-hole.
07 - You are seriously ill-informed or a deliberate liar. Since you were kicked out of the military for being overly fat and chastized for hiding youth complaints, you have hated anyone that brought out your sick character. Go on with your pity and try to bring others to your lowest level of TYC.
I like Marc Levin and think he means well ... One of the biggest problems is determining high risk and low risk offenders. I work in the juvenile probation part of the system and can tell you that determining low and high risk of re-offense is the key to using your resources properly. The offense for which a juvenile is under probation supervision is only one of many indicators of his/her risk of re-offending. Family structure/stability, drug use, peer association, gang involvement, and whether a kid sees education as any value to him/her are a couple other keys to determining low or high risk. We act as though every juvenile gets caught for everything they do. Many of our misdemeanor offenders are at a higher risk of re-offending than the felony offenders.
I'm just tired of people thinking these kids are defined by their offense. They are a whole lot more complex than that. Try looking at a another victim of juvenile crime and telling them .. " I'm sorry but he was just a misdemeanor offender."
The juvenile justice system has to be more proactive than that.
"Many of our misdemeanor offenders are at a higher risk of re-offending than the felony offenders."
You failed to add, "and vice versa."
Grits ... not sure I get your point but I think you re-iterate mine.
It's not just that some misdemeanants are more dangerous than the system assumes, but just as critically many "felons" aren't particularly dangerous and needn't be overly stigmatized. Your comment observed that sometimes miscategorization occurred but then decried it in only one direction when the reverse situation is at least as if not much more common. (I say that b/c there are 2,383 separate ways to become a felon, most nonviolent.)
Good grits. Tell TYC to grow up or get out of the business. Short but clear.
I agree. Dave C., Don B., T.B, and several others sit by while abuse to youth occured. Now they bitch about others when they were the main abusers who looked the other way. Thanks grits for being honest.
Let's be honest here. Dr.(questionable) R.Free...; the main nurse in charge, the appointed DOS (unqualified), the Psys' (all three), were in Chip's 'group' and sucked-up so hard that they loverlooked student abuses to get ahead. They were Ray B's accomplises and played the TYC game, screwing many youth and employees for their own advancement. The TYC way.
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