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| Juvenile justice system remains troubled |
| By nola.com |
| Published: 10/13/2009 |
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Louisiana's juvenile justice system is still plagued by violence and overcrowding despite years of efforts to shift the focus from punishment to rehabilitation, activists told a state panel Monday. Former state Sen. Donald Cravins, who helped pass a landmark 2003 law to overhaul the state's long-troubled system for treating youthful offenders, said the culture in the state's largest juvenile prisons remains largely unchanged. "I have a great deal of concern about what's transpiring, or perhaps not transpiring, " Cravins, who now is mayor of Opelousas, told the Juvenile Justice Implementation Commission. "The perception is that very little has happened." Members of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana said violence is on the upswing at the Swanson Center for Youth in Monroe. During a Sept. 15 visit by the group, several youth reported that fighting is commonplace, counseling and programming are scarce and that some staff members engage in inappropriate searches. State officials said that while the job is far from finished, great progress has been made at reducing the number of young people behind bars in favor of housing them in less restrictive settings closer to their homes. Mary Livers, who oversees the state Office of Juvenile Justice, said fewer than 500 Louisiana youth are currently housed in "secure care" facilities such as Swanson and the Bridge City Center for Youth, down from about 2,000 eight years ago. "Culture change is very hard, " Livers said. "(But) to say that we're not really striving to improve the culture is just a misstatement of fact." Read More. |
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