By Deborah Wolfe
With prisons filled to capacity and televisions blasting a seemingly endless parade of marauding teens across the living rooms of America, people may think healing the tragedy of youth violence is a nearly insurmountable task.
While most critics place blame on a juvenile-justice system that does a better job of molding childhood offenders into hardened criminals than turning young lives around, the state of Missouri has been applauded as “the guiding light for reform in juvenile justice.”
The accolades, from the American Youth Policy Forum, demonstrate the high regard educators, community leaders and youth advocates have for the Missouri Division of Youth Services (DYS) Juvenile Justice Program.
This respect was evident when the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School awarded the state with the 2008 Annie E. Casey Innovations Award in Children and Family System Reform.
Larry Strecker, Missouri DYS regional administrator, attributes the state’s success to a change in focus from a correctional perspective to one that views young people as products of their environment and capable of turning in a positive direction.
(Full version available at www.thelaketoday.com)
While most critics place blame on a juvenile-justice system that does a better job of molding childhood offenders into hardened criminals than turning young lives around, the state of Missouri has been applauded as “the guiding light for reform in juvenile justice.”
The accolades, from the American Youth Policy Forum, demonstrate the high regard educators, community leaders and youth advocates have for the Missouri Division of Youth Services (DYS) Juvenile Justice Program.
This respect was evident when the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School awarded the state with the 2008 Annie E. Casey Innovations Award in Children and Family System Reform.
Larry Strecker, Missouri DYS regional administrator, attributes the state’s success to a change in focus from a correctional perspective to one that views young people as products of their environment and capable of turning in a positive direction.
(Full version available at www.thelaketoday.com)
