Corrections Community

Like many departments, we are experiencing a pronounced increase in gang behavior in our juvenile facilites. Much of it reflects gang conflicts in the communities that the youth bring with them when committed to our department. We are responding with a number of strategies, but are considering augmenting them with programming directed at teaching tolerance and learning to embrace diversity. There are numerous such programs available for correctional staff. Is anyone using or aware of any such programs for correctional youth or at-risk adolescents? We have observed that racial tension is both contributing to our gang issues (youth from one group form a "gang" in the facility to protect themselves from another group) and exacerbating existing gang issues. Juveniels that do not seem to come in with hardened attitudes toward those of other ethnic groups are pushed by their peers to develop them. Any suggestions for programs that address the race issues head on?

Lou: What you reference is quite a complex problem. I know of no program firsthand. However, when you get a chance you may do some research into the Importation Model. This approach recognizes that offenders bring their prejudices/beliefs into our correctional facilities. You may be able to find some material there - especially about the recent development on the types of programs that interest you. I might also add, that in every facility that I have ever worked, the races tended to segregate themselves. I have never seen any program that has been very successful in countering this tendency. Inmates, like everyone else, tend to be more comfortable around those that share their same experiences, interests, etc. What little success I have seen has tended to occur as a result of religious/faith programs. The institutions that I have worked in have been fairly violent, and the inmates tended to segregate themselves as a safety/survival mechanism. Perhaps the same is occurring in your facility. Good luck, Curtis

Thank you, Curtis. Where could I get information on the Importation Model? I'm not familiar with it. I agree that this is an extremely complex problem, and i know there's no easy fix anywhere, much less in a secure institution. I hope I'm not being naive, but my sense is that the racial divide is not as intractable among juveniles as in adult prisons. I get the sense that many youth don't come in with strongly racist attitudes, but the environment pushes them there, as you said, for protection. I konw of some programs tfor adolescents that have supposedly had some success in high schools and middle schools. I was hoping to find that someone has used one of them or something similar in a secure facility. Lou