EXPANDING TREATMENT FOR JAILED YOUTHS GOOD STEP

South Carolina's Juvenile Justice Department is expanding its program that
provides alcohol and drug treatment to jailed teen-agers, two-thirds of
whom have substance abuse problems.

It is a momentous decision, one that has great significance for this
state's troubled youths.

Nearly five times the number of incarcerated teen-agers currently getting
help are going to be involved in a treatment program that enlists the
services of social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, juvenile
corrections officers and counselors, and the program follows the teen-agers
after they leave prison. It is one of few such programs in the nation.

This state's juveniles, however, continue to give cause for concern about
substance abuse and related crimes.

School districts across the state report that alcohol- and drug-related
incidents involving students are up. Drug crimes in public elementary and
high schools are up 7 percent over last year. Alcohol violations are up
15.3 percent.

A Department of Health and Human Services survey released last month
revealed that as many as 19 percent of this nation's teen-agers had a drink
within the prior month, with 7.8 percent reporting binge drinking, and 3.6
percent said they were heavy users of alcohol.

Educators are going to have to focus on improving the situation and should
consider expanding their prevention pro-grams by enlisting help from those
who have dealt successfully with youths in the juvenile prisons.

And parents are going to have to learn the warning signs. Otherwise,
juvenile prisons will continue to swell with the problem, and the cost to
taxpayers will continue to spiral.

Each year approximately 2,000 juveniles are admitted to one of the state's
long-term prison facilities, and the average cost of incarcerating this
population is $40 million annually.

South Carolina juvenile prisons currently house nearly 1,000 juveniles, and
the state Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services reports that
88 percent of those teen-agers successfully completing the treatment
program -- mostly 15-year-olds -- so far have not returned to jail.

While impressive, it is a success rate that this state's juvenile prison
system must strive to accelerate, and expanding its treatment program
should prove beneficial.

Getting more wayward youths involved in a program known to reduce their
rate of return to detention facilities, a program that follows up on their
progress after incarceration, is a tremendous investment in this state's
future.