Youthful offenders who lose their freedom shouldn't lose their chance for a good education.
by Susan Black, American School Board Journal
Closing the revolving door
Students who drop out "have one foot in the juvenile justice system," a parole officer told me recently. CJJ's statistics confirm it: Dropouts are three and a half times more likely than high school graduates to be arrested.
The incarceration rate is especially severe for students with learning disabilities and emotional disturbances. About 20 percent of students with emotional disabilities are arrested one or more times before they leave school.
The national reoffense rate for juvenile offenders is over 60 percent, which means that many kids keep spinning through the justice system's so-called revolving door.
Researchers Teara Archwamety and Antonis Katsiyannis looked for factors that predict juveniles' high recidivism rates. Their study of 505 boys ages 12 to 18 who were committed to Nebraska's Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center found that boys with low academic skills in reading and math were twice as likely to be recidivists or parole violators than other students.
But it is possible to stop the revolving door's spin, say Thomas Blomberg and George Pesta of Florida State University's school of criminology and criminal justice. Their study of 4,794 juveniles released from 113 residential facilities across Florida shows that high-quality education programs "serve as a turning point in the life course" of many incarcerated delinquents. Blomberg and Pesta report:
• Juveniles in low/moderate risk programs who have high academic achievement and high daily attendance are more likely to return to school following their release and less likely to be rearrested.
• Juveniles in high/maximum risk programs who earn a high school or GED diploma while incarcerated are less likely to be rearrested.
• Juveniles with strong school attachment are more likely to return to school and stay away from crime.
Safe passage back to school
Juveniles released from custody need all the help they can get as they move "from the courthouse to the schoolhouse," say Ronald Stephens and June Arnette of the National School Safety Center.
Many students need help with practical matters, such as obtaining transcripts and transferring credits from correctional schools. And they need guidance and understanding from principals, counselors, and teachers as they rejoin classmates and resume their studies. Without steady support, Stephens and Arnette say, few juveniles make it through this "overwhelming adjustment period."
OJJDP's Cora Roy-Stevens recommends that schools and juvenile justice agencies work as a team to ensure safe passage for juvenile offenders returning to public schools.
Manhattan's School Connection Center is one example of what she has in mind. The center's criminal justice staff partners with school counselors and teachers on tasks such as processing kids' transcripts, assessing their academic skills, and placing them in appropriate courses and programs.
The Manhattan center has worked on behalf of 507 juvenile offenders eligible to return to their home schools, placing nearly 400 of them in local schools and GED and vocational programs. During the first four months of a recent study, their attendance rate was 70 percent; at the end of the year, 66 percent of the students were still in school.
Youthful offenders, Stephens and Arnette say, deserve "compassion on the part of adults who are charged with shaping the lives of young people and helping them achieve responsible citizenship." That compassion should apply to kids who return to finish school. But schools need to do more. They also need to offer compassion, help, and guidance to failing and troubled kids before they end up in the juvenile justice system.
