Corrections and Treatment Essay

Community based treatment plays a large role in the criminal justice system. Community based treatment includes probation, treatment services and restitution. There is community based housing like small group homes, foster homes and boarding schools where juveniles can spend time while they are undergoing treatment. There are also nonresidential programs, where the juvenile can remain in their family home while attending treatment. A juvenile that is ordered to a foster home could be placed there because they do not have proper supervision in their family home, or they do not have a family home. A foster home is a place where the juvenile has the ability to live in a safe environment, in a place that they can call home. Restitution is often used as a community treatment when an offender has caused damage to property, this is the courts way of making the juvenile pay for the damages they caused. This could also be repaired by completing community service, if the damage was done to a public area where the juvenile can repair the damage with supervision. Institutionalization started by the juvenile offenders spending their sentence in the adult prison facilities, since there were no juvenile facilities. The adult facilities provided inhumane conditions for juveniles, where they were exposed to the evils of adult offenders and conditions that were not made for juveniles (Larry J. Siegel, 2005). The first juvenile institutions were created like the adult facilities, but they were created to protect the juveniles from the evils in the adult prisons. The juvenile facilities were also created to protect children. As juvenile institutions evolved, reform schools were made; they resembled boarding schools, providing education as well as confinement. Early institutions focused on punishment, which did not better the juveniles once they were released from the facilities. Later faciliti es changed the focus from punishment to rehabilitation. One great step towards  rehabilitation was the creation of a cottage system for an institute. In a cottage system, several juveniles shared a cottage with a set of â€Å"parents† that watched over them. Aftercare programs are similar to parole for adults. In an aftercare program, the juvenile is provided with a transitional program to transition the juvenile from a juvenile institute back to the community. Just like parolees in the adult system, juveniles have to abide by terms of The Intensive Aftercare program. Some of the terms are abiding by curfew, attend school, abstain from drugs and alcohol, avoid committing crimes and reporting to a youth worker when required (Larry J. Siegel, 2005). If the terms of the Intensive Aftercare program are not followed this can result in the juvenile returning to the institution. Bibliography Larry J. Siegel, B. C. (2005). Juvenile Delinquency: The Core. Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc.