Rehabilitation within the Juvenile Justice System
“Detention is four to 10 times more expensive and six times less effective than preventing future crime through rehabilitation and education.” (House, 2010) So why wouldn’t we at least attempt Rehabilitation. Rehabilitation means taking the time to shape another individual into a positive and productive member of the community. Most people would much rather see their tax dollars rehabilitate a youth than pay to incarcerate the. Rehabilitation cost less and has been shown to make an impact on the recidivism rate. Rehabilitation is made up of many treatments and strategies and almost all of them can attribute their programs to a reduced recidivism rate.
Treatments and Strategies used for Rehabilitation
Some of the more well-known and used treatment techniques include programs that focus on education, vocation, and recreation, group therapy, and individual therapy. Overall treatments focusing on rehabilitation have been shown to reduce recidivism but like every form of treatment there are exceptions, such as those seen in the boot camps and wilderness programs, which have proven to be less effective or as effective as incarceration with most juveniles. Interestingly enough though is that these two treatment types are still widely known and used every day.
Individual Treatment Techniques
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The numbers are consistent across the board and while some types of rehabilitation have proven to be more effective with youth than others recidivism decreases when properly implemented programs are present. The resources provided and the life skills learned can reduce recidivism by at least 5% on average. It’s also interesting to notate that some therapies were said to reduce rates by almost 20%. However on average compared to a normal recidivism rate of 50% or higher found in a study comparing 443 different study groups 45% of those were expected to recidivate (Treatment Programs for Juvenile Delinquents,