Budget & Staffing Plan

Running head: PROGRAM DESIGN PART 1: “CASES” DECREASES RECIDIVISM

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PROGRAM DESIGN PART 1: “CASES” DECREASE RECIVIDISM

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Program Design Part1: “Cases” Decreases Recidivism

Program Design Part1: “Cases” Decreases Recidivism

Homelessness, unemployment, hunger, abuse, gender discrimination, and poverty - what do all of these things have in common? All are examples of social problems. Social problems are issues that affect many people within a given community and present barriers to achieving an improvement in their quality of life. After discussing issues affecting our own communities, we settled on adolescent incarceration and recidivism. Many adolescents struggle with poverty, addiction, mental illness, and a lack of access to resources during their most formative years. As a result, these individuals are incarcerated at an alarming rate while they struggle to survive. Once incarcerated, youth have a stigma that follows them into the future, they are taken away from crucial social supports, and have a disruption in their education. The root causes of this problem stem from the justice system not focusing on the rehabilitation of youth while they are incarcerated. Often the justice system concentrates on deterrence or incapacitation as their criminal punishment style which promotes keeping them away from society instead of utilizing their time served on making them better people.

This problem we have identified is occurring in New Haven. New Haven is located in mid- south Connecticut, has a land area of 18.68 square miles, and a population of 130, 250 residents (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019). New Haven is considered a diverse population with 44% White, 33% Black or African American, .4% American Indian and Alaskan Native alone, 4.7 % Asian (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019). 30.3% are of Hispanic or Latino ethnic background and 30.5% are white alone; not of Hispanic or Latino ethnic background (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019) 16.6% of the population are foreign born and 3,039 veterans reside within the New Haven community (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018). In New Haven, 64.2% of the population (16 or older) are in the labor force and according to the U.S. Census Bureau there’s an estimate of 25.9% of the community living in poverty (2018). About 85.2% of the population graduate with a high school diploma and 35.4% with a Bachelor’s degree or higher education (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018). Of New Haven’s residents that are 65 years of age and under, 9.8% are without health insurance and 8.0% have a disability (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018). New Haven has a heightened number of crimes ranging from misdemeanors to felonies. As of 2018, New Haven had 428 acts of crime, making it 1.6 times higher than the US average (City- Data, 2020). With high numbers of crimes, incarcerations are prevalent in New Haven and interrupt many lives in one capacity or another.

We believe the scope of the problem is that adolescent incarceration and recidivism has been an issue in many parts of the world and has been experienced at different levels. The rate of incarceration and recurrence has been reducing in New Haven, CT, and the USA. Overall, in the United States, the rate has been on a decreasing mode since 1996 (Love, 2020). This shows a big improvement in the way adolescent and juvenile crimes are generally handled compared to the judicial prosecutions in the previous years. This has been attributed to the decrease in adolescent crime rates in the areas. We looked to identify how much of an impact adolescent incarceration has on their future outlooks.

Incarceration affects everyone especially the youth if they are subjected to the judicial system. When youth become incarcerated, they have a higher chance of being re-incarcerated as it becomes a revolving door for them. The youth can become a product of their environment if they don’t find positive outlets or have positive role models in their life to help them change their negative behaviors. Adolescents are most affected with incarceration and recidivism as they enter the judicial system at a young age. If they don’t receive any assistance or intervention, they can wind up being re-incarcerated and for longer periods of time as a reoffender. Once youth are incarcerated the stigma follows them when they are released and goes on their record. It would be difficult for them to get a job or any type of benefits due to their incarceration. When incarcerated, youth face a major disruption in their education and major developmental period of emotional regulation. If not addressed in the prison system, youth do not have the opportunity to gain the skills they need to better themselves and end the vicious cycle.

The program intervention that we would create would be a preventative program for adolescents from the ages of 12 to 24 years old. The program will focus on reducing incarceration and promoting positive social interactions by providing psychoeducational support groups. This will provide them with a sense of mutuality and belongingness amongst each other. It allows them to navigate through their community and not become part of the statistics. This proposed course of action focuses on the micro, mezzo and macro aspects. At the micro level we need to get more involved with the youth and include them in the process. The youth has the right to know about their case and have a choice in what decisions are being made to include them in the process. We, the social workers, case managers and those in the social services field need to be transparent, diligent, empathetic and take the person-in-environment approach. We must assure we align ourselves with the values and principles of the NASW Code of Ethics to ensure we are providing service, social justice, integrity, dignity/worth of a person, and the importance of human relationships. In the mezzo level, we need to bring together agencies, communities, lawmakers, and politicians. They need to be brought together so they can be educated and be knowledgeable about the impediments the youth that are incarcerated face. We would provide them with research and data on the facts of youth incarceration and the revolving door. At the macro level we bring interventions such as community service, big brother/big sister programs, and collaborate with the community to help create other services that may help decrease the youth incarceration rate and help them have positive outlets.

This intervention was chosen by weighing the benefits of psychoeducational groups which can bring forth the education of the justice system, state laws and how to cope in the environment they live in. Adolescents will be able to share their experiences amongst each other and have an open dialogue where trust and positive relationships are built. When looking at conventional preventative programs we see that they are geared towards making sure they get a high school diploma, employment readiness, substance/ alcohol abuse treatment and mental health services. However, rarely do we see a program with psychoeducation groups being implemented. Therefore, we believe that having this type of support will not only help in recidivism but will gain long lasting relationships for a better future.

Evidence suggests that youth who are incarcerated have more struggles with mental health issues as well as a decreased access to resources to combat it. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, “adolescents in detention and correctional facilities were about 10 times more likely to suffer from psychosis than the general adolescent population. The findings have implications for the provision of psychiatric services for adolescents in detention” (Fazel, et al. 2008). These findings show the need for services and psychoeducation for incarcerated youth. Findings by the Institute for Regional and Municipal Policy show that the current system is not preparing youth for re-entry into society. In fact, the numbers for juveniles on parole showed that 32% would be rearrested at six months, 52% at 12 months, and 77% at 24 months (IRMP, 2017). Simple changes such as rehabilitation services can potentially assist us in decreasing the prevalence of recidivism.

One of the programs which are helping reduce the rate of Adolescent incarceration and recidivism in New York City and around the United States is the Adolescent Diversion Project (ADP). This program aims at helping the young offenders rehabilitate and not be incarcerated (Mackin, 2019). The program partners’ offensive adolescents with supportive role models from universities and colleges. These role models are adult students who are proven to have good morals and ready to volunteer and help the younger ones achieve better dreams and avoid crime. Once paired, the two meets between six and eight hours every week to provide the offenders with positive role models and strengthen their family bonds.

In conclusion, data has shown the rates of juvenile incarceration and recidivism. It has also shown their increased rates of mental health struggles and disruption in education. We believe the connection between these two issues can be combated with rehabilitation in prisons focusing on psychoeducation and readiness skills for their reentry into society.

References

City-Data. (2020). Crime rate in New Haven, Connecticut (CT): murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, auto thefts, arson, law enforcement employees, police officers, crime map.

https://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-New-Haven-Connecticut.html

Fazel, S., Doll, H., & Langstrom, N. (2008, September 1). Mental Disorders Among Adolescent in Juvenile Detention and Correctional Facilities: A Systematic Review and Metaregression Analysis of 25 Surveys. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 47(9), 1010-1019.

Institute for Municipal & Regional Policy at Central Connecticut State University. (2017). Recidivism Among Adjudicated Youth on Parole in Connecticut. N.p.: Results First Connecticut.

Mackin, J. R., Eby, K. K., Scofield, M. G. E., & Davidson II, W. S. (2019). Integrating

the ivory tower and the community: The adolescent diversion project. In Teaching About Adolescences (pp.167-186). Routledge.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2019). Age and sex. Population Estimates Program (PEP and American Community Survey, updated annually.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newhavencityconnecticut/PST045219#PST045219

U.S. Census Bureau. (2018). Education, 2014-2018. American Community Survey (ACS) and Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS), 5-Year Estimates.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newhavencityconnecticut/PST045219#PST045219

U.S. Census Bureau. (2018). Health, 2014-2018. American Community Survey (ACS) and Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS), 5-Year Estimates.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newhavencityconnecticut/PST045219#PST045219

U.S. Census Bureau. (2018). Housing, 2014-2018. American Community Survey (ACS) and Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS), 5-Year Estimates.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newhavencityconnecticut/PST045219#PST045219

U.S. Census Bureau. (2018). Income and poverty, 2014 -2018. American Community Survey (ACS) and Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS), 5-Year Estimates.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newhavencityconnecticut/PST045219#PST045219

U.S. Census Bureau. (2018). Population characteristics, 2014-2018. Population Estimates Program (PEP), updated annually.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newhavencityconnecticut/AGE775219#AGE775219

U.S. Census Bureau. (2019). Population estimates. Population Estimates Program (PEP), updated annually.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/newhavencityconnecticut/PST045219#PST045219