Question
Write a 1,750 word proposal that describes the development and design process for your program.
Include the following in Part III of your proposal:
Identify the target population and describe how you identified it.
Locate similar programs and analyze their policies, procedures, and job descriptions.
Identify three of the most pertinent policies, procedures, and job descriptions necessary to use in your program.
Explain how you will address the need for interagency collaboration.
Develop an implementation plan and timeframe for your program.
Describe training requirements and materials needed for key personnel.
Format your proposal consistent with APA guidelines.
Answer
Juvenile Justice Correctional Facilities. 1
Juvenile Justice Correctional Facilities. 2
Analysis of Similar Programs. 3
Pertinent Policies, Procedures and Job Descriptions. 5
The Role of Interagency Collaboration. 7
Implementation Plan and Timeframe for the Program.. 8
Training Requirement and Material Needs. 8
Juvenile Justice Correctional Facilities
Introduction
Program implementation is typically viewed as a highly intricate, strenuous, and ultimately expensive affair. This statement bears some truth to it, to some extent, but effective programs have huge benefits which outweigh the costs. Both large and small-scale programs are obliged to demonstrate their effectiveness, especially to key stakeholders and funders as well. Following the large population of youth who can benefit from a coherent juvenile program in the USA, the challenge behind planning lies in identifying the target population and setting up a criterion for determining eligibility. As such, for this proposed program, identifying the target population, the characteristics and backgrounds are imperative to ensuring that it achieves its objective optimally. This is a crucial step since it gives the program a sense of direction.
Target Population
My proposed program is specifically designed to cater for teenagers between the ages of 10-19 years. As at 2015, there were approximately 41.7 million youth in the ages of 10-19 years and this translated to approximately 13% of the total populace in the USA (United States Census Bureau, 2016). This statistic is expected to rise to about 80 million by 2020. I chose this group because the rate of juvenile delinquency in the USA is gradually on the rise. It is projected that nearly 1.5 million youth are arrested yearly for crimes such as murder, robbery, drunken drivingand several others. The condition is fired by the fact that approximately 700,000 of these teenagers belong to street gangs (Egley, Howell & Harris, 2014). These statistics are alarming primarily because the juvenile correctional facilities that are currently in place offer far less in terms of rehabilitation, making this issue to become progressively multifaceted. There is still a huge controversy on whether juvenile justice systems should focus on rehabilitation or punishment.
There are a number of conditions that instigate and catalyze this delinquency. These include abuse, drug abuse, neglect, poverty and gangs. It is disheartening to see that many a time these issues are not addressed until a minor is incarcerated. The statistics provided by the Census Bureau and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were the largest contributors of why I chose this group. They shed light on how dire the situation regarding juvenile delinquency is and laid out the factors that have been disregarded and need to be addresses promptly to salvage the situation. The correctional facilities we have presently have failed terribly to address the issue of drug abuse and many others because they are ill-equipped. Furthermore, the strategies of detention and severe punishment which are typical to the US justice system have flouted the need for proper rehabilitation. They do not equip the detainees with the much-needed skills and information to survive out there after they have served their sentences to avoid recidivism.
Analysis of Similar Programs
Numerous states have taken responsibility in dealing with the educational and healthcare needs of inmates in general. Several programs have been adopted across various states and cities to improve the quality of healthcare extended to inmates. All correctional facilities are obligated to provide access to healthcare services to all detainees through effective channels and programs. The National Commission on Correctional Health Care(NCCHC) concurs with this assertion stating that inadequate healthcare services is one of the most evident characteristics of nearly all prisons, jails and juvenile correctional facilities in the United States. The fact that most inmates are drug users further escalates their morbidity and mortality rates, hence the need for efficient schemes which advance treatment to counteract this problem (Binswanger, Krueger & Steiner, 2009).
The United States Penitentiary (USP) is one of the correctional institutions that have implemented two healthcare programs, namely the medical designation program and theelectronic medical records scheme. The former generally involves the assignment of care levels to each inmate from a rating scale of 1-4, with one being the healthiest and four signifying those patients that require prompt medical attention. This program is highly efficient because it scrutinizes and categorizes all inmates based on their medical needs before admitting them to their institutions which are well-equipped and staffed. The latter, on the other hand, focuses on systematizing the medical records of inmates to preserve history and examination records as well as schedule medical visits for inmates. However, both these programs are under the management and supervision of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) which lays out the guidelines.
The above healthcare programs have yielded success because they adhere to the general principles mapped out by the BOP to improve the quality of health services extended to inmates. They have qualified health care professionals who are assigned to oversee the provision of healthcare in the different institutions. Furthermore, the quality of healthcare provided is consistent with that of the community standards.
Crossing over to education, a plethora of programs have also been adopted to provide inmates with the appropriate educational and vocational training they need to survive once they are out of prison. Good examples of such programs include Edovo and Prisons Education Project (PEP).To begin with, Edovo is a digital education system that has been designed specifically to work on tablets. It has been personalized to meet the needs of any type of correctional facility. Essentially, it is used to motivate inmates to remain in their best behavior by engaging them in intensiveacademic, vocational and therapeutic work that is pre-loaded into the tablets. This technology is quite beneficial in that it is up-to-date with the current trends amidst the rapid changes that are marking the 21st Century as far as expertise is concerned. It is currently being used by 30,000 people across the US.
PEP is an education initiative that was endorsed in 11 correctional facilities in California with an aim of expanding the informative opportunities for inmates. Since its inception, the program, through the help and input from faculty volunteers and university students, has been able to provide education to approximately 4000 inmates. This program has taken a new proactive and inventive approach to beef-up and increase the educational opportunities made available to convicts. This scheme provides a combination of academic, life and vocational skills to all inmates to transform them to prolific citizens. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) incorporated this program because it possessed the ability to induce change by enhancing progressive development among convicts while simultaneously saving resources which are quite scarce in correctional facilities across the US. According to Wilson (2014), the education offered in prisons has been found to reduce recidivism by up to 43% and this translates to a substantial decline in the funds used up by the government in rehabilitating these groups. The lower the rates of recidivism, the more economical it is for the American government.
Pertinent Policies, Procedures and Job Descriptions
The above programs incorporate several policies and procedures which may be useful to my proposed program. It is clearly evident that the CDCR has insisted on providing healthcare to inmates devoid of biases. In addition to this, it has provided opportunities for the convicts to indulge in constructive activities and rehabilitative programs to prepare them for their future.The inculcation of such policies in my program would go a long way in ensuring its success in achieving its objectives. It can be noted that these policies are centered on accountability and competency development. For instance, PEP allows inmates to be held accountable for their actions and enables them to repair this damage by providing a platform for knowledge and skills advancement. Similarly, the pro-social skills of inmates are increased through these programs since the medical schemes aim at tackling the fundamental factors that instigated the delinquency behavior through therapy and counseling.
The most applicable procedures that can be drawn from such programs include quality assessment and improvement, managing the healthcare initiatives and the coherent system of addressing the special needs of mental and physically disabled inmates. Through the assistance of the BOP, my program can screen all inmates for mental health issue and disabilities to ensure that they are assigned to the appropriate healthcare institutions within the facilities. Besides this, I have modeled my program in such a way that evaluations and assessment are conducted after every quarter. From a practical standpoint, program reviews and verification of professional standards of the healthcare doctors will help determine the suitable course of action to take should amendments be deemed necessary.
As far as job description is concerned, the newly employed facility administrators will be required to provide daily reports on inmate population, violations and general statistics. They will also be required to formulate, maintain and make updates to policies and procedures that guide the operations in the juvenile correctional facilities while ensuring their conformity to the rules stipulated by statutory case law. Health care practitioners will be required to advance adequate health care by conducting thorough assessments, diagnoses and treating inmates depending on their needs. Furthermore, they will be required to maintain appropriate safety standards by monitoring the medical supplies.
The Role of Interagency Collaboration
Interagency collaboration refers to a care system whereby different agencies and factions come together with the sole aim of solving problems to improve the quality of services offered to their families and children through joint decision-making (Hodges, Nesman, & Hernandez, 1999). Theoretically, such coordination is difficult to achieve because of factors such as different organizational primacies and goals, confusion on funding of services as well as diverse principles, ideologies and work ethics (Conger & Ross, 2006). Such barriers often result in negative outcomes since the overall input is counterproductive.
The effectiveness of my program relies heavily on the cooperation from stakeholders such asthe government, benevolent organizations, parents, learning institutions, health experts and the community. As such, this collaboration is crucial. My program has invested in three key areas to ensure that consistency is achieved. These are; jointly-shared information systems, connectivity and accountability. Allowing access to shared information systems will allow all parties to communicate freely and track individual accomplishments that concur with their respective roles and responsibilities. Connectivity will be enhanced by having a joint meeting with all key players to discuss pertinent issues relating to the effectiveness of the program, as well as make important decisions unanimously. Finally, every partner will be held accountable for his/her actions. Accountability is at the core of this program, implying that all actions need to conform to the predetermined objectives.
Implementation Plan and Timeframe for the Program
The proposed program will be implemented in two-phases. The first one will focus on hiring and rectruiting new personnel, from administrator all the way to health practitioners. These groups will further be subjected to an intensive and through a one-year training period to sharpen their respective skills as well as ascertain that their conducts conform to those outlined by the program.
The second phase will take approximately two years. It will involve a mid-term review of the policies and procedure outlined in the program, followed closely by the appraisal of the project by the shareholders towards the end of the second year. This two-year period will be the most crucial part since it will serve as a basis for projecting the budgetary expectations and determine the relevance of the program in the long-run. It is basically the trial run for the program since it will involve putting the skills of the new recruits to work in all sectors of the juvenile facilities to gauge their level of performance. All recruits will be subjected to performance reviews towards the end of the period. As such, the program is estimated to commence fully three years from now.
Training Requirement and Material Needs
Training requirement will vary depending on the specific job assignment. However, both the healthcare and educational experts are required to have undergone educational programs that are nationally accredited. Much to it, their respective qualifications should come from institutions that are well recognized in the country before being administered into this correctional program. This will make the whole process easier and cost-effective because we will not have to start from scratch as we work our way up.
The resources that will be required include relevant academic material, raw constituents such as art canvases, and designated rooms for training. Additionally, access to digital technologies such as computers and laptops will also come in handy towards the training process. All these entities are pivotal in ensuring that the program is successful.
References
Binswanger, I. A., Krueger, P. M., & Steiner, J. F. (2009). Prevalence of chronic medical conditions among jail and prison inmates in the United States compared with the general population. Journal of epidemiology and community health, jech-2009.
Conger, D., & Ross, T. (2006). Project confirm an outcome evaluation of a program for children in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 4(1), 97-115.
Egley Jr, A., Howell, J. C., & Harris, M. (2014). Highlights of the 2012 National Youth Gang Survey. Juvenile Justice Fact Sheet. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Hodges, S., Nesman, T., & Hernandez, M. (1999). Promising practices: Building
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