Intensive Aftercare

Intensive Aftercare

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Intensive Aftercare

The juvenile justice system in the United States of America was formed in order to handle judicial matters involving the youth and minor offenders. As the juvenile justice system evolves and advances, research has led to new innovations with the aim of improving performance and enhancing effectiveness of the system. Among the final stages through which a juvenile offender goes through in the juvenile justice system, is disposition. Juvenile courts place youth in various forms of disposition with an aim to correct their behavior and protect the safety of the community. The juvenile justice system has come up with several corrective and rehabilitative alternatives to incarceration. These include supervision or intensive supervision through routine probation, intensive supervised probation and intensive aftercare.

Intensive aftercare is a program supported by the office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention, and was initiated in the late 1980’s. Intensive aftercare program commonly referred to as IAP is an intensive community-based research and demonstration initiative, invented as one of the programs to improve the juvenile justice system. This program was rolled out with an aim to reduce recidivism among high-risk offenders on parole, by preparing them in a better way to get back into the community. The utilization of intensive aftercare program is based on data-driven research that indicates the benefits of the intensive aftercare program. Research shows that a transition that is highly structured and enhanced from confinement to the community would benefit parolees in areas including education, jobs, family and peer relations, substance abuse, mental health and recidivism without negatively affecting the community.

The intensive aftercare program has been utilized in several states in the United States of America. Examples of aftercare programs include the Philadelphia Intensive Probation Aftercare Program, the Michigan Nokomis Program, the Juvenile Aftercare in Maryland Drug Treatment Program and the Skillman Intensive Aftercare Project. The lessons from early intensive aftercare programs have led to the development of comprehensive aftercare philosophy. New programs for intensive aftercare combine intervention with community restraint to create aftercare design that prepares juveniles for reentry into the community. Common among all aftercare programs is focus on structured transition and follow-up period characterized by surveillance and the provision of community services.

Evidence shows a surge in the rates of recidivism in the United States of America, prior to research and implementation of intervention programs such as intensive aftercare. Intensive aftercare program was designed in an attempt to curb the rise in recidivism among juveniles who are released from a correctional facility and reenter the society. This program was designed after the realization that even after incarceration, it is difficult for offenders to reenter the community, without going back into their criminal lives. It was clear that despite the usefulness of interventions and rehabilitation programs during incarceration to sort positive effects, these programs did not appear successful enough to prevent the offender from reoffending.

Several studies have been carried out to examine the effectiveness of intensive aftercare in reducing recidivism among juveniles in the juvenile justice system. It was important to carry out this research due to the threat to public safety posed by high rates of recidivism. This research indicates that directed and supervised transition from correctional facilities to the community has led to lower recidivism rates and positive adjustment to the community. Research by Altschuler and Armstrong proposes that a juvenile aftercare or reentry program should consist of specific program elements and service areas, and proposes an intensive aftercare program model. According to this model, an aftercare program should include offender assessment and classification, coordinated case management with treatment and matching surveillance services.

Alternative sanctions such as intensive aftercare aimed at reducing recidivism, are effective, because of the intensive nature of the programs and the developments that have emerged through research with an aim to improve the program. The effectiveness of these sanctions however depends on the environment, from which the offender comes from, and the elimination or persistence of factors that led to the initial offending by the juvenile. If most factors that led the offender to commit the offence prior to incarceration persist in their environment, the rates of recidivism are likely to be higher. It is important to consider these during the implementation of these programs to ensure their effectiveness. Evidence indicates that these programs have been effective in reducing rates of recidivism.

References

Gies, S. V. (2003, September). Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/201800/page4.html

‘Intensive Aftercare’ in Juvenile Corrections-The Colorado Experience. (1997). Focal Point A National Bulletin on Family Support and Children’s Mental health Spring 1997, 11(1), 25-28.

James, C. (2015). Beyond Detention : The Effectiveness of Aftercare for Juvenile and Young Adult Offenders. University of Amsterdam.