HAWAII

Detention should be last resort for youth

THE ISSUE: Governor Lingle is considering a program of community-based facilities for detention of delinquent youths.

Last month's temporary transfer of seven girls from the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility to a detention center in Utah has drawn attention to the services available for delinquent young people. Governor Lingle says she intends to put youth correctional facilities on neighbor islands and consult with experts about successful programs on the mainland. While more detention facilities may be needed, experts may advise the governor to focus on intervention programs that don't include detention. A national panel has concluded that intensive counseling for families and young people at risk is more promising. The seven girls were transferred to the Salt Lake Valley Detention Center in late September and are scheduled to be returned to Hawaii on Nov. 28. The transfer allows some boys at their overcrowded facilities to be moved into the girls' unit.

Lingle said one of the problems is that youngsters who are sentenced to just a few days confinement are mixed in with long-term inmates. “You are having a mixing of population that you shouldn't have,” she said. A 13-expert panel convened by the National Institutes of Health agrees. The panel concluded yesterday that boot camps, group detention centers and other “get tough” programs bring together young people with violent tendencies who then teach each other how to commit more crime. “The more sophisticated (teens) instruct the more naive in precisely the behaviors that the intervener wishes to prevent,” it said. One program cited by the panel as effective is a therapy program of 12 one-hour sessions over three months to be attended by youth and their families. Another successful one is a community-based clinical treatment program, with 60 hours of counseling over four months, that targets violent and chronic offenders at risk of being taken away from their families.

Detention should be a last resort. Before subjecting a child to a situation that may lead to more crime, the state should exhaust ways to provide alternative services that are needed to prevent the child from engaging in further criminal activity.

18 October 2004
http://starbulletin.com/2004/10/16/editorial/editorials.html

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