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National Evaluation of the Deinstitutionalization of Status Offender Programs - Final Report

NCJ Number
80811
Author(s)
S Kabrin; M W Klein
Date Published
1982
Length
1194 pages
Annotation
The evaluation study of the National Status Offender Program examines eight program models and their deinstitutionalization applications and presents special studies related to the program.
Abstract
This study evaluated programs arising from the 1974 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act designed to remove incarcerated status offenders from correctional institutions, to prevent their reentry, and terminate the practice of placing status offenders in secure detention. Implementation problems include personnel resistance to the use of a random assignment design for establishment of control groups, inclusion of sites with few status offenders, and organizational obstructions to communication between program and evaluation personnel and between national and site evaluators. The report examines the differences among eight programs funded for deinstitutionalization initiative in Pima County, Ariz.; Connecticut; Delaware; Illinois; South Carolina; Clark County, Wash.; and Spokane County, Wash. Client characteristics in evaluated and nonevaluated sites are analyzed in regard to gender, age, ethnicity, offense patterns, source of referral, and customary household. Client recidivism and program components are also analyzed, program and preprogram youth are compared, and the uses of deinstitutionalization are discussed. The second volume presents special studies covering offense patterns of status offenders, evaluation of the deinstitutionalization of status offenders project through the system rates methodology, and comparative costs analysis of deinstitutionalization programs. Other special studies address the organizational properties of seven programs, evaluation of the deinstitutionalization of status offender programs through the application of multiattribute utility measurement, and the impact of alternative programs on the incarceration of status offenders. Tables, figures, notes, and an appendix presenting a status analysis of juvenile codes are provided. See NCJ 80812 for related document.