Last Chance in Texas
The rehabilitation of juvenile offenders has started to attract the particular attention of experts since the beginning of adolescents` massive involvement in the criminal justice system and the increase in juvenile recidivism rates. Giddings State School has become a model in managing the outlined issue (Hubner 2008). Traditionally, there are multiple reasons for juvenile delinquency, including previous negative life experiences and a socioeconomic environment. At the same time, in the majority of cases, imprisonment does not help offenders to learn from their mistakes and prevent re-offending. That is why, according to the research on recidivism rates conducted by the California Youth Authority in 2004, 74% of all parolees had been rearrested within three years of their release (Hubner 2008). Thus, in order to break the circle of crime recommitment, the Texas Youth Commission introduced the Capital Offender Program in the Giddings State Home and School.
Opened in 1972, the School served as a facility for children taken from broken homes where they could stay for a long time to receive a high school education. However, since the rise of juvenile crime rates in the 1970s, the Giddings State School has been transformed into a high-security closed institution (Hubner 2008). At the beginning of the 2000s, the School was the place for juvenile offenders who had committed highly severe and violent crimes, including aggravated assault, attempted murder, and rape. However, the Giddings State School Capital Offender Program developed by the Texas Youth Authority’s directors allows some juvenile offenders to transform themselves and return to society without serving complete sentences.
Program’s Key Strategies
In general, The Program has already proved its efficiency, and multiple pieces of research have demonstrated low juvenile recidivism rates among students who have completed it. These results may be explained by implementing particular strategies that assure the transformation of offenders into non-violent citizens. First of all, the main goal of the Giddings State School Capital Offender Program is resocialization. However, not all offenders confined to the School are suitable for it. That is why the first strategy is an efficient selection algorithm for participants. The school’s psychologists assess that only an almost insignificant percentage of offenders are psychopaths irresponsive to any treatment. All other students may be regarded as social creatures whose behavior may be transformed through particular group therapy. Subsequently, their behavior is thoroughly “checked and confronted”– at the Giddings State School; all students are under constant supervision twenty-four hours a day (Hubner 2008, 18). Those who demonstrate appropriate behavioral patterns, an understanding of the Program’s purposes and consequences, and a desire to transform socially receive an opportunity to be included in the Program group.
Intense group therapy that includes two phases is another highly essential strategy that makes the Giddings State School Capital Offender Program efficient. The first one may be called Life Stories, during which students involved in the Program should remember and retell the details of their lives before committing a crime (Hubner 2008). When all participants meet several times a week, every person should spend two to three-and-a-half-hour sessions “slowly and methodically sifting through their own lives” (Hubner 2008, 24). Psychologists help juvenile offenders analyze their behavior and what cognitive habits as a response to existing conditions have led them to severe crime and imprisonment.
The second phase may be regarded as Crime Stories, during which students are introduced to the harm they cause by their committed crimes. The Program forces students to realize their responsibility for horrible consequences by showing them autopsy reports and crime-scene pictures (Hubner 2008). Moreover, offenders should participate in so-called “victim impact panels” and listen to the parents of their victims who speak about how miserable their lives have become after they have lost their children.
The efficiency of a second strategy is determined by the fact that juvenile offenders are taught to feel again after they stop doing it due to the violence they have faced in their lives. Therapists involved in the Giddings State School Capital Offender Program spend much time with students, paying attention to every boy and girl. They listen to them, helping to understand what factors have led to what they did. Students feel more comfortable sharing their life stories as they see people listen to them, probably for the first time. The majority of offenders are full of anger, aggressiveness, ignorance, and insensitivity, which traditionally cause delinquency.
At the same time, these young people are full of pain as almost all of them went through a genuine nightmare in their families. They witnessed violence and were abused and betrayed by family members. Among the girls, the physical and sexual assault rate is 100% – girls are raped and molested by their fathers, stepfathers, or uncles sometimes since being toddlers (Hubner 2008). Thus, teenagers tend to detach from themselves and their feelings. They chose to be “predators” in order to avoid the weakness of the victims they were before.
At the same time, by asking students to tell their stories, exposing them to the consequences of their crimes, and making them accountable, therapists teach them to feel both their pain and others’ suffering again. The process of resocialization implies the development of empathy and admitting mistakes instead of justifying them. Students also memorize thinking errors, including deceiving, avoiding, blaming, downplaying, making excuses, overacting, acting helpless, jumping to conclusions, and feeling special (Hubner 2008). They learn to be responsible for their actions and their consequences.
Finally, the third and probably the most significant strategy of the Giddings State School Capital Offender Program is crime scene role-playing. When life stories and crime stories are told at the end of every therapy session, students and their therapists become actors who play two scenes. In the first scene, students play themselves; however, in the second scene, they play their victims. In the majority of cases, the experience of being victims shocks them. As previously mentioned, due to traumatic experiences in their lives, juvenile offenders divide people into victims and strong ones who may victimize them. However, when they play the role of victims, they realize that they are humans as well, and anyone may become a victim. That is why program participants` entire worldview starts to change.
Benefits and Challenges
The primary benefit of the Giddings State School Capital Offender Program is the minimization of the juvenile recidivism rate. According to studies that evaluated the Program`s efficiency, only 3% of program participants were rearrested within a year after release, and approximately 10% – were after thirty-six months on parole (Hubner 2008). Through resocialization, students learn to live according to social norms and develop emotional intelligence that helps them avoid deviant behavior. In addition, the Program does not leave parolees unprepared for the future and encourages them to complete their general education programs and receive job training.
At the same time, there are several substantial barriers associated with the Giddings State School Capital Offender Program. Firstly, it is the financial aspect–the Program may experience a lack of funding due to its nature, which frequently raises public dissatisfaction. In other words, a considerable number of people, including the parents of murdered children, do not accept the therapy that allows offenders to be released instead of spending their sentence in prison. In addition, the living conditions of juvenile offenders in Giddings State School raise parents` anger (Hubner 2008). However, therapists emphasize the importance of rehabilitation as perpetrators will be released sooner or later and will live in society, being someone`s next-door neighbor. That is why rehabilitation programs should be funded to ensure that parolees may adapt to everyday life.
In addition, the efficiency of the Program may be questioned due to “fronting.” This term defines fake empathy when an offender does not have feelings for others but realizes that he should imitate them to complete the Program to be released on parole (Hubner 2008). In turn, the School’s therapists deny this possibility – according to them, all students are constantly monitored, and non-genuine emotions are inevitably noticed and revealed.
Questions for the Program
In general, the description of the Giddings State School Capital Offender Program provided by Hubner (2008) in his book Last Chance in Texas may be regarded as highly informative and emotional at the same time. It is possible to feel students’ pain through their life stories and believe in their transformation. However, it would be interesting to know how rearrested perpetrators who have completed the Program impact the facility and the strategies for rehabilitation.
Program’s Outcomes
The Giddings State School Capital Offender Program’s primary purpose is to rehabilitate juvenile offenders and prevent juvenile recidivism. At the same time, it allows juveniles to review and analyze their lives. It teaches them to take responsibility for their actions, respectfully communicate with others, and help develop empathy and emotional intelligence. Therefore, the rehabilitation model works because it reduces the likelihood of recidivism in the future (Pappas and Dent 2023, 14). In the Giddings State School, juveniles are viewed as humans who should have a chance to change their lives and admit past mistakes. Moreover, they are prepared to be a part of a stable family and are courageous people who are not afraid of substantial challenges.
Recent Development and Issues
Although the strategies of the Program have proved their efficiency, they are currently criticized for a wrong focus. According to Goshe (2019), the Giddings State School’s approach “focuses too heavily on improving internal thoughts and behaviors through short-term “pills and programs” (Goshe 2019, 559). At the same time, the prevention of juvenile recidivism should imply the understanding of the issue’s social roots and addressing significant factors that lead to juvenile delinquency and re-offending. They include perpetrators’ age, criminal history, mental health disorders, physical environment, and limited abilities for education and employment. In other words, all governmental systems should cooperate to develop comprehensive preventative measures.
References
Goshe, Sonya. 2019. “How Contemporary Rehabilitation Fails Youth and Sabotages the American Juvenile Justice System: A Critique and Call for Change.” Critical Criminology, 27: 559-573.
Hubner, John. (2008). Last Chance in Texas. New York City, NY: Random House Trade Paperbacks.
Pappas, LaceĂ© N., and Amy L. Dent. 2023. “The 40-Year Debate: A Meta-Review on What Works for Juvenile Offenders.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 19 (1): 1-30.