http://www.troubledteenblog.com/children-behind-bars-the-system-is-failing-our-youth/ Families Struggling with Troubled Teen Issues Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:57:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.troubledteenblog.com/children-behind-bars-the-system-is-failing-our-youth/comment-page-1/#comment-1382 Brad Yomen Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:48:16 +0000 http://www.troubledteenblog.com/?p=2857#comment-1382 Good article. We really are doing something wrong when that many kids are locked up. More attention to intervening before things got so bad would be a great start... Some sobering stats in there, btw. Good article. We really are doing something wrong when that many kids are locked up. More attention to intervening before things got so bad would be a great start… Some sobering stats in there, btw.

]]> http://www.troubledteenblog.com/children-behind-bars-the-system-is-failing-our-youth/comment-page-1/#comment-1378 suzanne Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:23:32 +0000 http://www.troubledteenblog.com/?p=2857#comment-1378 Yes. It is very sad. Sidebar: My church is near the end of an extremely long approval process for a group of volunteers to regularly visit children in our juvenile hall (So. Cal.). On an orientation visit our group learned many things. One of which really stuck with me: very few of these children are visited by their family. Conversely, my husband & I make every visit to our son in troubled teen boarding school. Socio-economic? Yeah - probably. For many of these incarcerated kids, the closest thing to people who care about them are the staff & their assigned counselors - all of whom are responsible for so many children. And many times, because of steadfast rules of no-touching, no hugging, no hand gestures, no private conversations, and stern-looking armed guards everywhere, it's just plain difficult for feelings of compassion & understanding to come across. Several of these children have written that they do not want to go home. Home is a place of drugs, prostitution and unhealthful living conditions. They write that they don't know what doing the right thing is - all they know is survival. Where can they go? Many of the local youth shelters and training centers here (mostly run by charitable organizations) are full and have a waiting list. Seems we all should do what we can for our youths - no matter how small: "Do what you can, where you are, with what you have!" (Teddy Roosevelt) Yes. It is very sad. Sidebar: My church is near the end of an extremely long approval process for a group of volunteers to regularly visit children in our juvenile hall (So. Cal.). On an orientation visit our group learned many things. One of which really stuck with me: very few of these children are visited by their family. Conversely, my husband & I make every visit to our son in troubled teen boarding school. Socio-economic? Yeah – probably. For many of these incarcerated kids, the closest thing to people who care about them are the staff & their assigned counselors – all of whom are responsible for so many children. And many times, because of steadfast rules of no-touching, no hugging, no hand gestures, no private conversations, and stern-looking armed guards everywhere, it’s just plain difficult for feelings of compassion & understanding to come across. Several of these children have written that they do not want to go home. Home is a place of drugs, prostitution and unhealthful living conditions. They write that they don’t know what doing the right thing is – all they know is survival. Where can they go? Many of the local youth shelters and training centers here (mostly run by charitable organizations) are full and have a waiting list. Seems we all should do what we can for our youths – no matter how small: “Do what you can, where you are, with what you have!” (Teddy Roosevelt)

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