MISSOURI'S JUVENILE SYSTEM SHOULD BE PROUD

Missouri's juvenile justice system is a good indication that most wayward youths can be helped through rehabilitation as opposed to incarceration.

The American Youth Policy Forum, a not-for-profit group in Washington, D.C., recently declared Missouri's juvenile system a national model for successfully dealing with young offenders. And the statistics cited by the group certainly support its conclusion.

In its study, "Guiding Lights for Reform in Juvenile Justice," the group pointed to Missouri's remarkably low recidivism rate. The study found that just 11 percent of young people released from the state's juvenile facilities during the past two years were arrested again or returned to juvenile custody within a year -- a failure rate of one-half to two-thirds below most states.

The low recidivism rate was due in part to Missouri's lack of reliance on expensive residential confinement programs and limits on the length of stay in such programs, the study said. Missouri spent $61 million, or just $94 per person ages 10 to 17, for juvenile offender programs last year, while eight states surrounding Missouri spent about one-third more per youth.

Missouri had just 180 youths in high-security facilities, less than any of its bordering states. That is because Missouri doesn't rely on tough institutions for juveniles who don't need high security. Instead, the majority of young offenders in Missouri are sent to non-residential community programs, group homes and less secure state facilities that lack the prison-like atmospheres that exist in juvenile institutions in most states.

The study's author said Missouri's emphasis on counseling and positive youth development rather than incarceration and punishment is clearly paying dividends.

Indeed it is. But Missouri's juvenile justice system would not be as successful without the dedicated people who have made it work, and that includes juvenile officers, judges, law-enforcement officers, state social-service workers and many others.

They all can be proud to be part of a program that has been judged the best in the nation.