Date Published: October 9, 2007
It's been many a year in Florida since three such high-powered officials in state government have been so in sync with regard to how to best protect the public and also stand a chance of changing the lives of criminal offenders, juveniles and adults, for the betterment of both them and society.
On Monday Florida Secretary of the Department of Juvenile Justice Walt McNeil discussed a new statewide Blueprint Commission, which is challenged to plan reform of our juvenile justice system. He said that, above all, more balance is needed.
"Our mission prior to this has been 'to protect the public,' but it's changed to one of protecting the public but also maintaining a balance through prevention, rehabilitation, incarceration when necessary, and after-care." Mr. McNeil said. And all along the way, he added, efforts need to include bringing the families of juveniles into the dynamic.
Mr. McNeil, longtime chief of police in Tallahassee, is philosophically in line with Department of Children and Families Secretary Bob Butterworth and Department of Corrections Chief Jim McDonough, both of whom have been emphasizing a more holistic approach to changing lives gone bad as their agencies work with at-risk populations.
Incarceration with no hope of actual change in life patterns is not the answer to all adult crime, as Mr. McDonough has said. Nor is it the solution to juvenile crime, except for extreme and isolated cases - the ones that tend to provoke greatest public reaction leading to public policies that are sometimes, perhaps oftentimes, too all-or-nothing.
"We're going to always be able to tell horror stories about . . . bad kids," Mr. McNeil said, but a balanced approach means public policy that considers appropriate and different management for "low-risk, moderate-risk and the real bad hombres."
One of the things that isn't working for juveniles is having them put into a probationary limbo where, he said, they go back into the same environment, "the same old structure where they revert to the same street techniques to survive."
"Probation makes an assumption that there's a network of support in place," Mr. McNeil said, but there often is no such thing - at least not one that is thorough enough and specific enough to make a difference.
That includes counseling to help juveniles overcome substance abuse or domestic or sexual abuses they've endured, and it includes early preventive programs such as the Boys & Girls Club's after-school programs, where at-risk children get food, guidance, activities and safety.
The panel is headed by former Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan, current president of Florida Atlantic University, and 24 other high-profile leaders including state board of Education member Donna Callaway and Gadsden County Manager Marlon Brown. It will be providing the groundwork necessary to make improvements that will have direct and positive effects on young people. Public hearings will be held around the state in the next few months to address juvenile recidivism, the overrepresentation of minority youths and the alarming trend of girls being the fastest-growing segment to enter the juvenile justice population.
There are no easy or cheap solutions. We can't, for example, continue paying direct-care staff in detention centers such low wages that we guarantee not only high turnover but also a staff without the maturity or skill sets needed to effectively manage troubled juveniles. Lawmakers and county political leaders will have to be persuaded of the investment of dollars in prevention, rehabilitation and after-care community efforts as certainly as they have been investing in incarceration alone - an approach that, as Mr. McNeil says, virtually no one is still suggesting has worked.
This welcome change in leadership philosophy from high up in the Crist administration is an essential first step toward a more common-sense management of juvenile crime.
Tallahassee Democrat
October 9, 2007 Source: Tallahassee Democrat |