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Too Many Youths In Jail, Experts Say 03/28/02 BATON ROUGE -- Too many youthful offenders are being put in the state's four juvenile prisons instead of community-based programs, which cost less to maintain and turn out substantially fewer repeat offenders, experts and state corrections officials said Wednesday. Louisiana puts young offenders in juvenile prisons, as opposed to other facilities, at a rate 56 percent above the national average, said Tim Roche, deputy director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, a nonprofit group in Washington that promotes alternatives to youth imprisonment. "Many of these institutions are churning out a far more damaged product than they're taking in," said Roche, who had been asked by Senate Judiciary B Committee Chairman Donald Cravins, D-Arnaudville, to evaluate the state's juvenile justice system. Missouri recently reduced recidivism rates and youth crime, Roche told the committee, by putting more juvenile offenders in community-based programs, such as group homes that offer work programs during the day. "The cost of these programs is but a fraction of what it costs to maintain a large institution," he said. Department of Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder said the number of young people in his juvenile prisons has dropped from 1,750 to 1,400 in the past few years and noted that he has "strongly pushed" for more community-based alternatives. Judges often recommend juveniles serve their sentences at prisons, Stalder said, and his department often follows that recommendation. Roche suggested Louisiana consider transferring control of youth prisons to another department. David Utter, director of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, agreed. "We have a juvenile system designed to handle adults," he said. Stalder said the state has been successful in enacting a number of changes in its juvenile justice system since settling a lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice and juvenile justice advocates in September 2000. While the state has made great strides improving the educational system in youth prisons, Utter said, facilities such as the one in Tallulah remain excessively violent. In recent months, he said, 25 percent of the 400 inmates there have gone to the infirmary seeking treatment for injuries that resulted from violence. Many of the recommendations made to the committee Wednesday will be passed along to a panel formed to look at possible changes to Louisiana's system, officials said. . . . . . . . Steve Ritea can be reached at sritea@timespicayune.com or (225) 342-7315. © The Times-Picayune. Used with permission. |