Both the short-term and long-term juvenile confinement facilities aim to facilitate the reformation of the youths so that they can refrain from crime. The short-term juvenile confinement facilities consist of jails, detention centers, and shelter care facilities (Mistrett & Thomas, 2017). The short-term facility is mainly adopted to provide temporary care in a physically restricting setting for the juveniles in custody pending court disposition and those adjudicated to delinquent and awaiting transfer to another jurisdiction (McCarthy, Schiraldi & Shark, 2016). The facilities provide correctional measures and ensure that the youths access age-appropriate services. The local authorities who ran the short-term juvenile confinement facilities are obliged to provide security. There are no severe corrective programs incorporated in short-term services, indicating why many legislators have suggested its elimination. The principal objective of the short term facility is to host the suspects as they await hearing or sentence (Schiraldi, Western & Bradner, 2015). However, it is worth noting that the juveniles are exposed to the rights of incarcerated youth comprising of right to assistance of counsel and the right to remain silent when questioned about involvement in criminal activity.
The long-term confinement facilities consist of boot camps, ranches, forestry camps, and training schools. In the United States, approximately two-thirds of the youth are held for longer than a month, a quarter for over six months, and almost 8% for more than a year (Mistrett & Thomas, 2017). The long-term facilities are the most common placement for the sentenced youths (McCarthy, Schiraldi & Shark, 2016). The facility aims to apply corrective measures to ensure that the youths refrain from criminal activities. The juveniles are mostly subjected to pepper spray, mechanical restraints, and solidarity confinement (Schiraldi, Western & Bradner, 2015). However, the minors are liable to incarceration rights such as rights to expression, the right to counsel, the right to confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses.
Juvenile aftercare refers to the reintegrative programs aiming to prepare juvenile offenders who have been either serving short-term or long-term confinement facilities back to the community. The primary objective of aftercare or reentry is to reduce the recidivism rate of juvenile offenders (Monahan, Steinberg & Piguero, 2015). Different states adopt diverse mechanisms in the process of releasing the youths from training schools. In most cases, the juveniles are released after the expiry of the confinement period (Walker et al., 2015). The judicial system might opt to release youths who portray a high sense of responsibility and appears to have reformed. The juvenile release might also occur the case is reviewed, and the convicted found not to be guilty. After the youths are released, appropriate measures should be adopted to ensure that the juveniles are adequately incorporated in society.
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