Juvenile Aftercare Programmes

Juvenile Aftercare Programmes
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Introduction
Before the start of 20th century, children that committed crimes would all be arraigned in courts alongside the adults. However, that changed at the beginning of 20th century when there was introduction of the juvenile courts, where all the offenders that had not attained the age of majority would be tried and judgement passed upon them. The juvenile courts are part of the court system but they specialize with children and adolescents that are caught on the wrong side of the law of the land. Unlike the normal court and prosecutor process that the adult have to go through, children are taken through a special system that makes sure that they are corrected and ready to lead their lives as normal person in the society once more.
Much like the adults system commonly known as parole, where one is released and required to behave in a certain manner within the community to show their commitment to change. Aftercare protocol followed the same route but in this case managed by the juvenile correction departments in the justice systems. If by any chance the juvenile does not follow the conditions that are given by their correction officer they may end up recommitted to the same facility or ever transferred to another facility. While different states have developed their own set of laws governing the manner in which the juveniles are handled once released, the most common system that has come through the ages is the intensive aftercare.
History
While there are those children that are caught in the event of one time offence there are those that turn out to be serious and have to be handled with a lot more care given their chance of turning to crime. The system first attempts grew out of the concern of the scenes in the adults’ correction facilities that were becoming overcrowded. At the same time the correction facilities had to be tough on the offenders. As part of the community based outfit the system utilised social structures and technology to make sure that there was enough surveillance (Office of Justice Programs, 2013).
The intensive aftercare can be traced back in the 1960s when there were intensive programs that were aimed at the adult offenders and probationers. The idea behind the inception of this care was cantered around the development of the right strategies that would greatly increase the level of social control. There was also the aspect of the number of offenders per supervisor and the caseloads. The idea behind the case reduction and the offenders was that the officer would have more time to conduct activities that related to the case management, in a manner that was more responsive and intensive. In the 70s and early 80s, the public called for better protection as well as the need to check the overcrowding in the prisons. In essence, this meant that there was need for better social control and surveillance. As such majority of the techniques...