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Missouri mentors
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Successful new programs for correcting juvenile offenders are gaining national attention, and the most innovative solutions may also be the simplest. The Missouri juvenile detention system has replaced large prison-like youth correction facilities with 42 smaller centers emphasizing individual attention, community and mentorship. Criteria for release are based on character change, not time served, and support for youths continues as they readjust to life in society.
Compared to programs nationwide, the outcome of these programs is staggering: youth recidivism rates of seven to nine percent, compared to a national average of 33 percent, and up to 75 percent in some states.
Don Smarto, president of Youth Direct Ministries, a national outreach to high-risk youth, used the Missouri system as one of five examples of success in a November presentation on juvenile re-entry at the White House. Among juvenile offenders, Smart told WoW, there are clear trends: “We usually see males around 15 to 20 years old and very disjointed from their family.” About 80 percent of delinquents nationally, he said, have no father present, and most share feelings of being unwanted or unloved.
Because of this, he said, the most effective way to change delinquent youth is individual mentorship: “What you need is a relationship with an adult: a woman for a young girl and a man for a young boy. Where the mentor plays a really crucial role is when they’re going back to a chaotic (family) environment. The mentor gives a release valve, a semblance of a healthy relationship.”
Many youth mentors and volunteers, Smarto said, come from local churches, which he encourages to adopt a youth and form an accountability team to mentor and disciple him. Since programs like Missouri’s make such extensive use of volunteers, they are the least costly as well as the most effective.
In most programs, Smarto said, “You could be sending (youth offenders) to MIT or Harvard for as much money as we’re spending. The things that are working don’t cost any money.”
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Off-key
This is interesting for me, because I currently work at a Christian ranch for young men. And our successes definately aren’t attributed to the program, but to the interpersonal connections between staff and student.
I really wonder about the best solution for these emotionally damaged youth. I’ve worked with both the youth and the parents, and what strikes me is how stridently the parents will proclaim their love, while simultaneously failing to show even the most basic nurturing. It’s almost like they consider the child a pet, or a doll. A mere prop in their internal drama. How long could any child bear that with getting seriously screwed up?
Individual mentoring IS the answer. But it takes a VERY strong person to give that kind of unconditional love. We should pray for exceptional people to take an interest in this kind of work.
It’s good to have successful examples of mentoring in front of us. I’d like to know more about the Missouri program for instance. Yet my intuition tells me that there are no easy solutions. No matter how shy or reserved any of us are, we are created for relationship. It starts even before we’re out of the womb.
A troubled person may not be able to describe a healthy relationship but all of us, including they, know when someone else is investing in us unconditionally. We may not respond appropriately but we need that - and we need to give like that with others too. When we treat others as a pet or a doll we’re not fulfilling our purpose.
Mentoring may not cost much in dollars but it is a very big investment. Our correctional facilities will never be big enough (nor will there ever be enought money) to accomplish what mentoring can do. And, of course even mentoring has its limitations given our fallen world. Certainly churches should be more involved in reaching out in this way.
It is encouraging that there are people in the Missouri detention system that are looking for substantive rather than superficial improvements in behavior. If you want things to change you need to measure the right things.