Last week, the Harvard’s Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at recognized Missouri’s Division of Youth Services as the winner of its 2008 Annie E. Casey Innovations Award in Children and Family System Reform. Focusing on individual and group treatment approaches, Missouri’s program provides dormitory settings and therapeutic environments. Missouri’s statistics are promising. 90% of youths enrolled in the DYS program avoid reincarceration for three years following their graduation. The Ash Institute’s news release states:
Recognized as “the guiding light for reform in juvenile justice” by the American Youth Policy Forum, the Missouri Division of Youth Services (DYS) forwards a promising new philosophy in treatment of youth offenders at its 42 locations across the state. Instead of the predominant punitive practices, DYS takes a therapeutic approach, viewing youth as a direct product of their experiences and capable of turning their lives around through a step by step change process.
Read the entire article here: http://content.knowledgeplex.org/streams/ksg/AshInstitute/09.09.08_DYS.pdf
