JUVENILE JUSTICE

The Old Ways Aren't Always The Best Ways

A few years ago North Carolina looked at a blue-ribbon commission's report
and promised to improve its juvenile justice system.

But a budget crisis arrived to hinder the effort. The Department of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention must eliminate 100 jobs. The
original idea was to give these young people more attention, not less of
it. But times are tough and people are suffering -- children among them.
But the storm cloud had a silver lining at Samarkand Manor in western Moore
County. The state's only coed juvenile detention center will become an
all-girls facility to save on staff costs. That may be good or bad; it's
too soon to say. But here's the good news: The program at Samarkand will
move away from the "correctional" model, to a "therapeutic" one. That is
progress.

Many of the girls who end up at Samarkand have been physically and sexually
abused. Some have drug and mental problems. Before they got into the
trouble that brought them to Samarkand, many were victims of crime. Others
had untreated emotional troubles, which caused them to act out or to be at
higher risk of drug use.

Locking them in without helping them was locking them out of a productive
life. Even if they don't want help -- at first -- they ought to get it.

Samarkand will bring in an intensive substance-abuse program. Vocational
training will be offered. All of these developments sound promising.

The therapeutic approach is wisest for youth. The correctional formula is
better suited for adult prisons, and even then, it isn't especially
effective. Adult addicts are also repeat offenders when their drug problems
aren't addressed.

It is difficult to believe that North Carolina thinks that locking up
children -- some as young as 10 -- is the ideal way to redirect troubled
lives. It isn't.

These children need counseling and direction. State budget constraints
shouldn't keep them from it.