Research has shown that children raised in urban ghettos and impoverished rural areas are more likely to be diagnosed as mentally retarded than children from middle class neighborhoods. A major reason is because of the generally deprived intellectual environment in which minority group children have been nurtured, combined with numerous other problems linked with poverty, such as poor nutrition, unhealthy living conditions, poor child care, family emotional problems, inadequate educational programs, and related aspects of deprivation. Offender data from Virginia's Tidewater region also show a disproportionate commitment of black mentally retarded offenders to State correctional facilities, where little is done to counteract the cyclical pattern of no job, too much free time, getting into trouble, incarceration, release, and no job. Virginia's Juveniles Unemployment Making Progress (JUMP) Program has made an effort to break this cycle by providing a variety of services, including assessment, work counseling, education, life survival skills education, skill training, employability skill courses, social education courses, work placement, and postplacement counseling. The program has had a significant impact on the recidivism of its clients. Nine references are provided.