Community Involvement and Correction

Community Involvement and Corrections

CJA 374

September 17, 2012

Ron Gray

Community Involvement and Corrections

Community involvement

There are experts which agree that strengthening and encouraging a close connection with juveniles and the community, will perhaps be the best way to reduce recidivism. Where there is always an agreement, there are also people that hold a negative opinion of the juvenile’s home communities, believing that they are neighbourhoods that nothing good will never come from such place. But if someone stopped to think about it, juvenile’s home communities are a great source of social networking, mentoring, youth development programs and other support that should be needed to keep juveniles from incarceration. Increasing the community as a whole to work with juveniles at risk of the life of crime and incarceration would be the essence to sustaining general reform of the juvenile justice system. In recent years, there has been a few states that have advanced juvenile justice reforms by closing several juvenile detention facilities and creating more community based alternative programs. But even though there still remains a great disconnection with the youth and the community. There are significant reasons for having the need for this type of connection. First of all, involve local community stakeholders in the juvenile justice reform process. Key players in the community such as parents, community leaders, clergy, neighbourhood residents, business owners, and most importantly juveniles are the most important stakeholders when it comes to developing sensible juvenile justice policy. The communities most affected by incarceration must play a greater role in juvenile justice reform efforts. Secondly, providing local community organizations with training, technical assistance, and capacity building so they can partner effectively with youth in the juvenile justice system. Local community organizations excel in providing youth with...