Closing a juvenile correction center

---------- Forwarded by Virginia C.U.R.E. - thanks to Sherry for sharing This is such an important issue—please contact your state representatives in the House of Delegates and State Senate to voice your view of closing such an important facility for our young people to reduce the state budget.


information@sov.state.va.us

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Editorial

The Virginian-Pilot



Closing a juvenile correctional center to save $1.2 million was a bad choice among nothing but bad choices in the latest round of cuts to the biennial budget. As part of the fourth round of cuts, Gov. Tim Kaine announced he would shutter the Natural Bridge Juvenile Correctional Center, eliminate its 68 jobs and sell the 100-acre property in the Jefferson National Forest.



The center's closing is horrible news for Rockbridge County, which for decades has embraced the staff and residents and been a key part of the teens' rehabilitation. But it's worse news for troubled boys who need discipline, structure, schooling and job skills, and for the state, which is drifting away from smaller, rehabilitation-focused correctional centers to large, punishment-oriented prisons.



The shift flies in the face of research, which shows that youths punished in places that mimic adult prisons learn to survive by fighting and joining gangs, and that they typically return to crime once they're released.



In contrast, the system used at National Bridge teaches the youths how to work, and the advantages and responsibilities of citizenship, and holds them accountable for their choices. Those who come out of the Natural Bridge center are more likely to finish school and less likely to commit another crime than youths from traditional facilities.



A mother of one of the residents at Natural Bridge said her son, now 17, arrived at the center nearly a year ago after he was charged in a series of burglaries. He was rudderless, a follower with no self-confidence who wasn't doing well in school.



At Natural Bridge, the staff is no nonsense, the mother told The Pilot in a phone interview. "They aren't touchy-feely. They're stern disciplinarians." He worked for privileges. He delivered food to people in the community who couldn't afford it. He worked with a counselor. He took an auto mechanics class, wasn't particularly good at it but found he was really good at math. He followed the mantra taught at the campus: Be responsible for your actions, be a good citizen and role model, change your thinking and your behavior and maintain hope.



In the past nine months, he has earned his GED and is taking philosophy and English classes at the community college. He's a teacher's assistant whose dream is to become a math teacher. His hope, his mother said, was to come back to the Natural Bridge juvenile center one day and tell the boys that he used to be there, and he's proof they can make something of themselves.



The teen who, like all other residents, is set to be transferred to a more restrictive facility in the next few weeks, is due to be released in December.



His mother believes he has turned a corner and won't be back in court. But she worries about the others. "I would like the satisfaction that the state is doing something about juvenile crime," she said, rather than sending kids to places where they'll mix with seasoned criminals and likely be repeat offenders.



The governor may not be able to fix this problem during this financial crisis. But whoever wins that job in November must reverse the trend of closing the programs that do the most good. Assemble juvenile justice experts. Look at what has worked, both in Virginia and across the country.



Consider not just the costs of counseling, drug treatment and job training, but the long-term costs of not providing them: Building more prisons for kids who become hardened criminals rather than productive citizens.