Regional Youth Educational Facility: A Promising Short-Term Intensive Institutional and Aftercare Program for Juvenile Court Wards (From Intensive Interventions With High-Risk Youths, P 395-422, 1991, Troy L Armstrong, ed. -- See NCJ-129819)

• NCJ Number: 129832
• Author(s): N Skonovd; W Krause
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 28 pages
• Sale Source: Criminal Justice Press/Willow Tree Press
• Publication Type: Program Description (Model)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This study evaluates the Regional Youth Educational Facility (RYEF) that serves both San Bernardino and Riverside Counties (California) and provides a highly intensive 6-month residential program followed by 4 to 6 months of intensive aftercare supervision for 40 male wards.

Abstract

The RYEF has a highly structured, intensive program designed to guide juvenile court wards to develop, practice, and internalize effective adult and community survival skills and to accept responsibility and accountability for personal behavior and decisions. Participants are provided a competency-based remedial education program that includes accelerated physical training, screening for learning disabilities, contact with crime victims, vocational training and work experience, substance abuse counseling, psychological counseling, and community service and restitution. Intensive aftercare encourages wards to meet the educational, employment, and personal objectives they have set for themselves prior to release. The evaluation compared the recidivism of the wards placed in the RYEF between January 1 and September 1, 1987, with a comparison group of juveniles who completed other programs. At 6 months, the recidivism rate for the RYEF experimental group was 16 percent compared to 45 percent for the comparison group. The evaluation did not determine why RYEF is apparently more effective than other programs. 1 table, appended data, and 35 references