A Comparatory Study of Juvenile Probation Systems in Oakland, Kalamazoo, and Calhoun County Michigan

Abstract

Community corrections, specifically probation, forms the cornerstone of today's juvenile justice system. Each year, juvenile courts sentence approximately forty percent of their cases to probation. Thousands and thousands of our youth are spending the most critical time in their young lives in a system that can at times seem as if it is making little difference. The frequency and severity of juvenile crime continues to increase. The most horrifying example of this has come in the form of school massacres that have been too common over the past couple of years. Juvenile crime is following the same violent path that adult crime has traveled. But unlike the adult system, we have not yet given up on rehabilitating our nation's youth. As more and more people call for harsher punishment for juveniles, to build more detention facilities, and impose longer sentences, a study of the current theories and strategies of juvenile justice, especially probation, is critical, lest we abandon rehabilitative practices and barrel down the same path as the adult system. This is just a small part of the enormous task ahead as we try to devise better ways of rehabilitating our youth.