ONLY FOR MAESTRO
Zhao 1
Running head: YOUTHBUILD OFFENDER PROGRAM
Zhao 2
YOUTHBUILD OFFENDER PROGRAM
YOUTHBUILD OFFENDER PROGRAM
Angus Zhao
California State University of Los Angeles
April 11, 2019
YOUTHBUILD OFFENDER PROGRAM
One juvenile program that focuses on interventions for juveniles is the YouthBuild offender program which is across states in the US. The program was put in place targeting low-income youths between the ages of 16-24 who had been previously convicted of a crime (National Institute of Social Justice 2018). Following many reported cases of young people in the US engaging in petty crimes to be heard or pass a point, YouthBuild seeks to accomplish goals that help the youth become productive members of society. This is by ensuring that they acquire the necessary skills that will help them land a suitable job. It also aims to ensure that the youth complete school by earning diplomas that will suffice in seeking employment opportunities. Getting jobs or being in school for the young people ensures that they are not involved in criminal activities which could send them to juvenile centers. Securing jobs helps the young people have a stable life which does not allow them to seek criminal alternatives to make ends meet.
The YouthBuild program is a post delinquent program that helps youth who were previously convicted of a crime and are likely to be remedied by instilling good behavior in them. The court refers the delinquents to this program as a diversion to avoid putting them behind bars or after the delinquents have completed their jail term and the correctional facilities feel that the young person has room to change. The offender program tries to bring about change by ensuring that the people sent to the center to enroll in learning programs, therefore create a platform for the delinquents attains a diploma. The platform also seeks to prepare the trainees for the job market by equipping them with various skills that are crucial to getting employment. The construction skills come in handy because most of the people enrolled in the program come from low-income families that have no decent homes. They can go back to their community and help improve the houses that they live in and make equipment that can assist in the household.
The program brings in qualified people educate the youth on what it takes to land a good job and the way they are supposed to conduct themselves when they are called for an interview. The same qualified people include high school teachers who could offer lessons to ensure the delinquents get their diplomas and GED. The goal of YouthBuild is to help as many youths as possible who have been convicted change their ways by showing them that a life of crime is not good and non-rewarding. The people who attend the program are delinquents who have committed crimes that do not amount to capital punishment because such crimes can be remedied and avoided when the youth are taught on the disadvantages of the same (National Institute of Social Justice 2018). There are vocational training activities offered once a week or twice to help the youth get the necessary skills that may be of help to them such as how to construct affordable housing facilities.
Various success stories and milestones have been recorded where the young people who have been to the program get jobs or go back to school to get their GED and diplomas. They get to encourage the other young people who could be engaged in criminal behavior to join the program so that their lives could also change. The young people appreciate the program because without it they would not have changed and would have reverted to committing the crimes once they are released from prison. The central gap in the program that could be addressed is the group of people that are taken into the program to help them change their ways. YouthBuild has been taking in many girls compared to the boys which raise the question of fairness in gender. The program is scarred straight and some form of therapy to the young people because the skills help the girls and boys keep away from committing the crimes that could land them into jail again. The vocational training is some form of therapy to the delinquents as they will have something to do and think about instead of thinking of committing crimes in the community. The program should aim to take the same numbers of girls as well as boys because all of them could use the help that would be given to them.
Boys are less likely to change when they are released from prison because they might have the urge to take revenge against the people who sent them to jail in the first place. The program could be taking more girls in because the people who run it feel that the girls are likely to change and do what the instructors tell them to do. The difficulty in making boys follow instructions could be the reason that the program has not enrolled as many boys as girls. However, that could be a problem because it is stereotyping the boys as there are boys who could not be hard headed and would be open to receiving the vocational training offered. The possible solution to this issue of imbalance in the numbers that they take at YouthBuild is to enroll the same number of boys and girls so that there are enough girls as well as boys who are being reformed to go back into the society.
It is essential to have people who are qualified and know how to interact with juveniles work in programs such as YouthBuild. The people who receive delinquents at the program know that juveniles are vulnerable beings who need to be handled with care and cannot be approached the same way as adults. Juveniles have rights that extend to them even once they have been sentenced by the court (Cox, Allen, & Hanser, 2017). Enrolling in helpful programs is also a right which ensures that the delinquents get to acquire skills that help them earn a diploma, GED or even get a job that could help sustain their lives when they are back in the society.
YouthBuild can ask the courts that sent delinquents to them to ensure that the numbers are balanced so that they can assist the same number of girls and boys to be reformed members of the society. The program has increased the likelihood of the youth getting high school diplomas, GED and training certificates which can help them in the employment world. It can place adverts that are seeking to take in young people with equal numbers in boys and girls to ensure that there is a gender balance. One cannot simply choose to help girls more than boys by explaining that girls need more help and vice versa. Young people from both genders have been involved in drugs and criminal behavior which means that they all need help in equal measure and YouthBuild is that place which could help them turn their lives around. The perception that boys are not likely to change as much as the girls could be changed by seeing the numbers that the program has recorded in having reformed young of both genders get good jobs or end up with a diploma. Just because some few boys refused to change in the past when they were enrolled in the program does not mean that others will not want to change their ways.
References
Cox, S.M. Allen, J.M. & Hanser, J.D. (2017) Juvenile Justice A Guide to Theory, Policy, and
Practice
National Institute of Social Justice (2018). Program Profile: YouthBuild Offender.
Programhttps://www.crimesolutions.gov/ProgramDetails.aspx?ID=609