NCJ Number
156513
Date Published
Unknown
Length
34 pages
Annotation
Based on the experience of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)- funded research and development project, Intensive Community-based Aftercare Program (IAP), this paper discusses management and administrative issues that must be considered if progress is to be made in structuring the institutional and aftercare experience of high-risk juvenile offenders.
Abstract
The IAP project consisted of four stages, i.e., assessing programs currently in operation or under development, developing program prototypes, transferring the prototypes into a training and technical assistance package, and implementing and testing the prototype in selected jurisdictions. Experience suggests a number of lessons and insights essential to the design and management of juvenile aftercare. First, the overall organizational complexity of juvenile corrections makes it very difficult to achieve even basic communication among its constituent parts. Aftercare for high-risk juvenile offenders cannot be effective if it is structured to operate in an isolated and self-sufficient fashion. Clarity on the mission of juvenile aftercare and intensive aftercare must be established at the outset. The implementation plan must address decisions about confinement and length of stay, steps facilitating prerelease and transition, service brokerage and referral, staffing, and management information. Follow-through and prioritization are essential. Finally, any attempt to develop intensive approaches to juvenile aftercare must build on the emerging knowledge base and evolving technology of treatment and social control. 19 references