Officials: Therapy, education key parts
and therapy programs in a prisonlike environment, Kimbrough, Smith and other officials said the programs are a key component of daily activities.
Advocates and juvenile justice experts stress that while the program is being touted as both therapeutic and rehabilitative, the environment is still prison — where the youths are handcuffed and shackled daily, and are isolated from their families.
“This is concerning for the 14 youth currently in the program, but also leaves open the question of how we prevent the need for this limitedcapacity, specialized program and make systemwide change to get to what we know are proven models for better outcomes for all 1,200-some youth within TJJD facilities,” Rose said.
To do that, officials say, would cost even more than the current system — which ran more than $131,000 a year per youth in 2010. By contrast, convicts in an adult prison cost about $18,000 a year to incarcerate, with fewer programs and much higher staff-to-offender ratios.
To Travis Waddell, the education superintendent at the Mart lockup, the program offers hope.
He should know. As a teenager, he did time for theft and assaults in a Virginia lockup.
“I was like a pinball machine — in and out,” said the 40-year-old former Army staff sergeant who now holds a master’s degree in education. “I came from an environment that taught me to react with anger, and I got in flghts at school and got in with the wrong crowd.
“I understand where these youth are. That’s how they were taught. I’ve been there.”