Recent reports about abuse of juvenile inmates have renewed calls for a national overhaul of a juvenile justice system that includes nearly 100,000 children.
In Missouri, a different method for juvenile detention has seen surprisingly successful results, trading in the orange uniforms and cell blocks for therapists and dorm rooms.
Chris, 14, was sentenced to the Waverly Youth Center, one of Missouri's 32 juvenile jails and a last chance stop for 44 boys already embarked on a life of crime.
"In my town, I was labeled 'the troublemaker,'" Chris said. "I was doing drugs … drinking every day. … I was also stealing cars." Chris says the Waverly Youth Center is nothing like prison. "Staff are here to help you and to push you to do right," he said. "Here, everybody cares for you."
Only 10 percent of the kids in Missouri's juvenile jails end up in adult prison, according to Missouri Division of Youth Services. In other states, that number is as high as 40 percent.
Read the whole report at: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/missouris-juvenile-justice-system/story?id=8511600
You may also like to review an older article posted in October 2007 by the New York Times, equally exalting the successes in Missouri, the "law-and-order state". It points out "Missouri has abandoned mass kiddie prisons in favor of small community-based centers that stress therapy, not punishment. When possible, young people are kept near their homes so their parents can participate in rehabilitation that includes extensive family therapy." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/opinion/28sun2.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
