Reduce Juvenile Detention

Missouri

Missouri has garnered national attention for its juvenile justice reforms and impressive outcomes, including low recidivism rates and therefore significant savings.

• Program Continuum: Missouri DYS offers a four-level continuum of programs, ranging from non-residential community care (including 10 day treatment centers) for the least serious offenders to secure care facilities, none of which have more than 50 beds, for the most serious offenders.  All facilities are designed in a non-correctional style, with comfortable dorm rooms and decorated walls, and youth are placed in facilities located near their families and communities.
• Youth Safety: DYS emphasizes keeping youth both physically safe and safe from emotional abuse.  In residential facilities, 24-hour supervision is provided by highly trained staff who interact with youth to create a respectful, trusting environment.  Mechanical restraints are only used in emergencies, and few facilities have isolation cells.  Compared with the 97 facilities studied in the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators’ Performance-based Standards project, assaults against youth are 4.5 times less common and assaults on staff are 13 times less common in Missouri facilities than in other facilities studied.
• Education: Each youth receives educational services guided by a personalized education plan developed by the DYS education staff, the youth and his or her parents. Approximately 40 percent of DYS youth receive special education services provided by certificated, special needs instructors.  DYS follows a twelve-month school calendar, and youth are taught in their treatment groups, keeping class sizes small and building on the supportive, familiar dynamic of these groups. The DYS program of learning includes instruction in language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, fine arts, career education, personal finance, health and physical education.  Three-fourths of confined juvenile offenders in Missouri advance at least as fast as a typical public school student,  and, on average, three-fourths of DYS youth who attempt the GED test pass the test.  In 2008, one-fourth of all DYS resident youth leaving a DYS facility after their 16th birthday completed their secondary education (high school or GED).
• Employment Training: Missouri funds an employment project that allows DYS youth to gain actual work experience while in DYS custody.  DYS also offers regular opportunities for youth to participate in community service projects, allowing youth to apply their skills in real-world contexts and while connecting them to their communities.
• Family Engagement: DYS begins meeting with parents immediately upon a youth’s entrance into custody.  Service coordinators then work with parents through a youth’s detention and actively encourage family to attend visiting hours.  Parents are also involved in release planning and aftercare.  Twenty five to thirty percent of DYS youth participate in family therapy at some point in their treatment.
• Case Management System: DYS uses a comprehensive case management system to follow and support youth after their release. It conducts intensive aftercare planning prior to release, monitors and mentors youth closely in the first crucial weeks following release and works hard to enroll them in school, place them in jobs, and/or sign them up for extracurricular activities in their home communities.  In 2008, 85.3 percent of youth leaving DYS care were productively engaged in school and/or employed upon their discharge.
• Reentry Mentor: Upon release, DYS assigns many youth a mentor based in the community.  This mentor serves the dual purpose of providing youth with a positive, trusting relationship and a role model and allowing DYS to gauge youth’s re-entry into the community.