CENTER FOR SEX OFFENDER MANAGEMENT
The Effective Management of Juvenile Sex Offenders in the Community
A Training Curriculum

 A Project of the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice

 

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Section 6: Reentry
3 Hours

TOPIC: REENTRY

Speaking of parents and caregivers, let’s spend a few minutes talking about their involvement in the broader reentry and aftercare planning process.

Practical Strategies to Promote the Early Involvement of Families in the Reentry and Aftercare Planning Process

A question that is often raised by practitioners who work with youthful sex offenders in the context of reentry and aftercare planning is how to involve parents, caregivers, and family members. As discussed in the supervision section of this training, for a host of reasons, parents and caregivers are sometimes resistant to taking an active role in the management process. As you think about including them, here are some practical strategies to remember:   

• Approach parents and caregivers as partners whose input is valued.⁴⁵ To facilitate the engagement and participation of parents or caregivers early in the reentry and aftercare planning process, approach them in an empathic, respectful, supportive, and firm manner. Let them know that they are critical collaborators in the process.
• Identify common ground and common goals.⁴⁶ Giving parents a “say” in what the ultimate outcome should be with their child can empower them to be a part of the solution to the challenge that is figuring out how best to support the youth’s transition back to the community from a residential or institutional facility. For example, all parties probably want the juvenile to be successful. In addition, no one thinks that a positive outcome will be the juvenile ending up back in placement. Discussions about these kinds of goals and desires, and how to achieve them, can be very motivating to parents and caregivers, and provide them with an opportunity to think in very specific ways about the things that they can do to be supportive of the process.
• Make family therapy an expectation in the context of reentry and aftercare planning, rather than an easy “option” to decline.⁴⁷ It’s important that family-based interventions are cast as activities that will be done “with” the family and not “to” the family. In addition, it can be very helpful to stress the potential benefits of participation and the costs associated with not taking part.
• Plan to incorporate therapeutic activities or assignments into visitation time at the facility. As we discussed, there may be risk factors present in families that need to be addressed prior to reentry. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to find opportunities to provide necessary services to families, especially if community-based programming is limited and families only travel to facilities periodically to visit their kids. Visits can provide important opportunities to conduct family therapy sessions. After the visiting period is over, family treatment work can be conducted. In addition, “family days” in facilities can be used as occasions not only for youth to spend time with their families, but to participate in therapeutic activities.
• Create “after hours” parenting skills classes, and education and support groups. As you know, programming that occurs during regular working hours can create scheduling difficulties for some families; offering evening and weekend sessions can make it much easier for them to participate consistently. These classes and groups can provide parents and caregivers with valuable information and new skills that they can use to support the reentry and aftercare process, and make available safe forums where they can interact with others who are having similar experiences.
• Plan to offer transportation.  Once again, our overall goal in the reentry and aftercare process is to ensure victim and community safety, and to promote the successful transition of these youth back to the community. Parents, caregivers, and family members play critical roles in this process, so we must make every effort to support their participation. Some families—for a host of reasons—can’t get to residential or institutional facilities to participate in the reentry and aftercare planning process. Rather than just “excusing” these families from being involved, casting their participation as a requirement and then offering transportation to them may be a good way to ensure their presence and input.

Are there any other strategies that you’ve found helpful in your efforts to engage and include family members in the reentry and aftercare planning process?

(ALLOW FOR AUDIENCE RESPONSES.)

So let’s move on from family issues and return to a discussion of a number of other key issues, concerns, and barriers that must be addressed in the reentry and aftercare plan.

Educational Needs

When thinking about the educational needs of youth who are in residential or institutional programming, there are several key considerations that should be addressed prior to a juvenile’s release.

• Communication should occur with the school in the community that the juvenile will be attending so that school personnel are aware of the juvenile’s return and can begin to plan for it. For example, if the juvenile’s victim(s) or potential victims will be enrolled in the same school, safety plans must be developed. The needs and well-being of victims should be the first priority in these plans; if the victim’s safety cannot be guaranteed in the school setting to which the youthful offender is planning to return, then the offender should be enrolled in a different school or have his educational needs addressed in an alternative education arrangement.
• If the juvenile is prohibited from returning to a school in the local community, alternative educational services need to be identified so that upon release, the youth can continue with his education uninterrupted.
• Case managers or teachers in the facility where the juvenile is residing must ensure that the education credits that the juvenile earned while in placement are transferred to the school he will be attending in the community or are otherwise included in his official education record.

Vocational Needs

For those older juveniles who have either completed school or will not return to it in the community, it’s important to assist them with the development and enhancement of skills and competencies necessary to secure (and maintain) viable employment upon release. Vocational training should be targeted toward individual skills, interests, and aptitudes; if it continues in the community, it should build upon residential programming.

As juveniles prepare to exit residential or institutional programs, attempts to match them to potential employers in the community can help to promote successful community reintegration and stability. Youth—employer matching should be based on their skills, aptitudes, and interests, and victim and potential victim safety concerns. As discussed in the supervision presentation, there may be some types of employment that are not appropriate for youthful sex offenders because they may place them in potentially risky situations or give them access to individuals who may be vulnerable.

Interagency agreements between juvenile justice, workforce, and social services entities can also be used to pool resources to “sponsor” a juvenile’s placement with a specific employer in the community. The employer is able to commit more comfortably to hiring the juvenile offender for a probationary period without any financial risk. Then, provided that probationary period is completed successfully, the employer agrees to maintain the juvenile on a permanent basis and assumes the costs of the wages and benefits.

Life and Independent Living Skills

As has been discussed during this training, a primary rehabilitative goal for juvenile sex offenders who are in residential or institutional facilities is to equip them to return to their communities, where they will be productive, contributing citizens. While focusing on “higher level” skills and competencies as targets of treatment interventions, it is also important that professionals do not assume that juveniles possess basic life skills. Therefore, prior to—and following—release, steps should be taken to ensure that such skills are developed, maintained, and enhanced.

For some juveniles, particularly those who are older and for whom returning to their families or other supports is not an option, independent living skills will be crucial. Issues that may need to be addressed with these youth prior to, during, and after release include banking and money management, shopping, hygiene, obtaining identification (e.g., state identification, library card, driver’s license), identifying and securing public assistance, securing health insurance, accessing affordable housing, and transportation.

Community Supervision Strategies

It’s important for community supervision to begin prior to release, with the assignment of a juvenile parole officer or aftercare caseworker or manager early in the planning process, so that potential barriers and problems in the community can be identified and addressed before the juvenile returns. As was discussed in the supervision section, surveillance-driven and punishment-oriented approaches alone are largely ineffective with juvenile offenders.⁴⁸ Supervision models that are rehabilitation-oriented—and that utilize case management strategies—are associated with positive outcomes for youth and reduced recidivism.⁴⁹

Supervision officers or aftercare caseworkers or managers (who are, ideally, specially trained to manage juvenile sex offenders) should understand, value, and support the rehabilitative programs and services provided within the residential or institutional programs and work to link juveniles to—and support their successful participation in—complementary interventions in the community. The overall goal of supervision officers should be to ensure that juveniles transition successfully from residential and institutional programs and maintain stability in the community.

Beyond the rehabilitation and supervision efforts directed at the juvenile, successful reentry and aftercare can be impacted significantly by family-related issues and other environmental factors, such as the presence of negative adults and peers.⁵⁰ Therefore, prior to release, supervision officers or aftercare case managers or workers should identify members of community support networks who can serve as “informed supervisors.”  As discussed during the supervision presentation, these individuals are critical because the presence of positive, prosocial adults in the lives of juveniles is a significant protective factor that reduces the likelihood of delinquent behavior.⁵¹ These adults can also help to facilitate the transition process by serving as extra sets of eyes and ears for the supervision officer, supporting the juvenile’s successful participation in community-based programs and services, and modeling appropriate, pro–social behavior.

As has been discussed already, parents and caregivers are the most logical examples of informed supervisors, so it’s critical that they be involved early in the reentry and aftercare planning process. This will help to guarantee that they are equipped and ready to support the supervision process when the juvenile returns to the community. Other common examples of informed supervisors are school personnel (like teachers, counselors, and coaches), employers, youth mentors, and other volunteers.

Community Hostility Concerns

A final, critical issue to be addressed during the reentry and aftercare planning process is the possibility that these youth may experience hostility from some community members for committing a sex offense. It’s the responsibility of those who work with these juveniles as they reenter the community to help them to use the coping skills they learned in treatment to manage this hostility in appropriate ways.