A Season to Imagine a Better World

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Let’s face it — the practice of juvenile justice does not work for the most part. I applaud the efforts of those pushing our juvenile code rewrite here in Georgia, but will the changes produce drastic outcomes for delinquent youth?  Drastic outcomes require drastic changes — I mean controversial and blasphemous changes! To achieve drastic outcomes, we have to change the starting place. We already know — or should know — what to do with delinquent youth. The question is where do we do what with them?  Despite the significant progress to develop effective community-based programs such as cognitive behavioral training, Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST), and Functional Family Therapy (FFT), they become insignificant if the costs to support them are dedicated to the brick and mortar to house youth.

Researcher Finds More Effective, Lower Cost Solution For Juvenile Justice Treatment

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New research finds that using a method of therapy involving family and community is more effective and costs the juvenile justice system significantly less than traditional methods that focus only on the individual. Charles Borduin, a University of Missouri professor who pioneered multi-systemic therapy (MST), used a cost-benefit analysis of 176 juvenile offenders to determine that the method is 10 times cheaper than therapy that focused exclusively on the offender, according to ScienceDaily. "Most current treatments are based on the idea that the problem lies entirely within the child," Borduin said. "If you look at the scientific literature, it's not about the individual kid -- it's about family problems, low household warmth, high levels of conflict, abuse, neglect, involvement with the wrong group of kids, school problems, and so on.”

Although MST has high costs upfront, Borduin said that using MST on one juvenile offender resulted in savings of $75,110 to $199,374 over a 14-year period.

Sedgrid Lewis: A Different Approach to Gang Prevention

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With gang intervention on the rise, former gang member and Vietnam veteran, Louie is helping the gang influenced youth in Clayton County, GA.  Louie, now a therapist practicing Multisystemic Therapy (MST), first met Patricia when she was a young gang member in Clayton County.  Patricia, like many youth, had been gang affiliated at an early age and was yet another statistic in the county having the largest gang growth rate in Metro Atlanta. The Clayton County Police Gang Intelligence unit estimates there are 1,200 gang members and 47 criminal street gangs in the county. The gang members range in age from 13 to 22. Patricia unfortunately fit into this segment of the population and began leading a life of crime and a gang influenced lifestyle. Despite her gang involvement the Clayton County Juvenile Court placed Patricia in the Multisystemic Therapy Program (MST) funded by the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice.