Juvenile Delinquency: An Insider's View of Teen Rehabilitation

This article is about my experience volunteering at a treatment facility in Missouri. Many states lock kids up in big prisons that only serve to make them more hardened criminals, but here, we have a different approach. Most of the residents in this system stay at a facility for 3 months to over a year, depending on their age and the severity of their offenses. They must demonstrate growth, self-control, accountability, and leadership before they are released. They wear their own clothes and sleep in comfortable beds in a common room. They are constantly under "eyes-on" supervision by staff. I was volunteering during my senior year of college to fulfill requirements for my Psychology capstone class.

I admit I was a bit nervous before I first started volunteering at Riverside, but as I got to know the group members and the staff, I realized that I could become as involved or uninvolved as I wanted. What I wanted was to make an impact on at least a few of these boys, even though I had only one semester to accomplish this. Now the main challenge I faced was getting the boys to open up and talk to me more than mumbling a few words at a time. At first wondered what sorts of things 12-16 year old boys might find interesting to discuss, but I learned that each boy had his own interests and that my efforts to chat about music and sports and school were enough to start a conversation, even if we did not have much in common. I finally realized that just being myself with them was the best way to get them to talk to me. I found that the most interesting things we discussed were the family and friends at home that the boys missed. Conversations like this also helped me get a much better idea of what kind of a home life these kids had before Riverside.

I realized quite quickly that none of these kids had an ideal situation at home. Some were in custody of grandparents because their own parents could not or did not want to take care of them. Some had a dad who had left or a mom who had left, and were dealing with step-parents who hit them or encouraged them to steal or do drugs. Some of their natural parents also set precedents for their drug or alcohol use, violence, or stealing habits. Many of them claimed that they began destructive behavior because their parents paid no attention to them. Many of them felt that they were not loved by their parents, especially after being sent away because of their crimes. Most were worried about being treated differently when they did finally go home. Many also had older siblings who were a bad influence on them or younger siblings whom they resented. Some had parents in prison. One boy had both parents in prison. Most had been physically or sexually abused or neglected in some way at some point in their young lives. From what I gathered, not one member of this particular group came from a stable family atmosphere or lived with both of their natural parents.

I think that Riverside does a good job of making the boys feel like their group members and staff is like a family away from home. Most of the boys agreed that they have it much better in the facility than they did at home. They are separated from the negative influences in their lives and taught to respect and care about one another. Before I started, I expected a dark feeling of punishment to hang in the air, but the emphasis is not placed on making the boys suffer to pay for what they did. Instead Riverside focuses on teaching the boys how to understand their problems and get help. They are strongly encouraged to express themselves openly and freely so that they can accept responsibility for their actions and help the other boys in the facility come to grips with their own problems as well. They end group meetings by putting their hands in and yelling "Brothers!" and from the friendships I have witnessed between the boys there, they mean it.

I was also impressed by the way the staff treats the group members with respect and care. Not only do they joke around with the boys and pay them compliments often, they genuinely seem to have a good relationship with the boys and the boys seem to respect the staff in response to this treatment. When a boy does or says something wrong, instead of being punished by the staff, the other group members are in charge of calling a circle to discuss the problem. Although the boy's actions will affect his assessment, it seems like immediately addressing the problem with the entire group is a much better way of handling problem behavior than direct punishment from the staff because it does not turn the group against the staff. This way, boys must face their frustrations head on and talk about what is bothering them rather than just being punished. The boys are good about "calling someone out" when there is a problem to discuss, and they usually do a good job of addressing the issue. Because they are expected to do this with the idea of helping each other in mind rather than placing blame, the boys do not often seem to take it personally when they are the one being singled out.

What I have learned over the course of my volunteering experience is that most of these "juvenile delinquents" are not just inherently bad, mean, or cruel kids. From what I saw, these boys were very caring towards one another and were actually much more mature than a lot of kids their age. Never once over the semester did any of the boys treat me disrespectfully in any way, and when I gave an hour long presentation near the end of the semester, they participated wholeheartedly and congratulated me at the end. From what I have heard them say during treatment, group meetings, over dinner, or to me privately, most of these boys have just had hard lives with a lot more family problems than many kids their age could even imagine. Not that this is an excuse for their behavior, but it certainly does seem to be the main cause, according to my observations. I am very glad I had a chance to be a positive influence in their lives, however brief it may have been.