COLUMBUS, OH – The state's juvenile prisons are trying to develop a better way to prepare youths for life after their release because about half are locked up again within three years.

Providing the youths more job training, help finding employment and mentors to offer advice are among the planned changes at the Department of Youth Services, according to a report released Monday.

Starting next week, the department will recruit volunteers in towns and cities near each of its eight prisons to provide tutoring and mentoring, said Christine Money, who oversaw development of the plan at the agency.

The new approach is partially a reaction to problems the agency has in recent years, including abusive corrections officers and untrained social workers.

Gov. Bob Taft fired the department's longtime director in 2004.

Finding new ways to help the youths merge back into society has been a priority for Director Thomas Strickrath since he took the post a year ago.

Social service agencies and nonprofit groups, including religious groups, will administer the programs, Strickrath said.

Some funding will come from a $1 million federal work force investment grant.

Many young people get into trouble again because they go back to abusive homes or neighborhoods where their friends are gang members, Strickrath said.

Eventually, each of the 1,500 youths who are released each year will have a mentor, he said.

Any adult who passes a background check can be a mentor or tutor, Money said.

Churches will be asked to send members, and university students who are studying criminal justice will be encouraged to participate, Money said.

Parole officers can offer some counseling to released inmates, but a mentor is also important since parole officers can't always act as a cheerleader or a parent-like figure, said Donna Hamparian, a Columbus resident who was a consultant in the 1990s to the Department of Justice on juvenile justice issues.

"The most effective thing they can do, if they want to reduce recidivism, is provide good aftercare," Hamparian said.

The report was the first time the agency has compiled the recidivism rate for juvenile offenders.

The state also found that 30 percent of paroled youths were back in prison within a year, according the report that compiled data from 2002 through 2004.

The department also plans to introduce a standardized, statewide form to help judges decide whether a juvenile should be sent to prison, placed on probation or sent to a day-treatment program.

Until now, each of Ohio's 88 counties has had a different way of determining whether a youth should be locked up.