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.