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A closer look at the 'Missouri model' for juvie corrections

During the height of last year's debates over what should happen at the Texas Youth Commission, the state of the art best practices legislators were most often encouraged to follow - including by a "blue ribbon commission" appointed by the Governor - came from the "Missouri model," which was used as a catch phrase to describe a range of reforms that generally promoted smaller facilities and more therapeutic, less prison-like approaches.Since that time reforms in Texas have moved a long way from the Missouri model, but the St. Louis Post Dispatch offered a story to at least remind us of what Texas should be aiming for ("Missouri leads nation in juvenile justice reform," Sept. 13). The approach at first blush sounds like it would be criticized reflexively as "soft on crime," except that it achieves anti-recidivism results that won over even the most hard-nosed cynics in Missouri...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on September 16, 2008 (boomark / email).