Shifting “Tough on Crime” to Keeping Kids Out of Jail

Abstract

The proliferation of zero tolerance policies and “tough on crime” laws has lead to 2.11 million youth arrested and 75% adjudicated through juvenile courts in 2008. Many arrested youth have mental illness diagnosis resulting in further barriers including fragmented services, institutions with conflicting missions and incompatible approaches, and a dearth of community resources (Shufelt & Cocozza, 2006). Yet, for the boom years of mass incarceration since 1990s, the Agency1 studied for this project shifted from institutionalization of these youth to community-based treatments by shifting from problem-based medical focus to a strengths-based approach. In this study, qualitative data collection occurred over a 6-month period for the purposes of analyzing how a community-based program has sustained itself in an era that emphasizes a tough approach to crime. This Agency’s success partially stems from shifting the conversation about juvenile justice away from punishment by effectively viewing the youth’s family as the expert and a valuable resource in treatment. This shift, enhanced by diversification of services and fiscal controls, also illustrates that a strengths-based approach to juvenile justice is also cost-effective.