Missouri's New Take on Juvenile Justice

Sept. 8, 2009 — -- Recent reports about abuse of juvenile inmates have renewed calls for a national overhaul of a juvenile justice system that includes nearly 100,000 children.

In Missouri, a different method for juvenile detention has seen surprisingly successful results, trading in the orange uniforms and cell blocks for therapists and dorm rooms.

Chris, 14, was sentenced to the Waverly Youth Center, one of Missouri's 32 juvenile jails and a last chance stop for 44 boys already embarked on a life of crime.

"In my town, I was labeled 'the troublemaker,'" Chris said. "I was doing drugs … drinking every day. … I was also stealing cars."

Chris says the Waverly Youth Center is nothing like prison.

"Staff are here to help you and to push you to do right," he said. "Here, everybody cares for you."

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The juveniles here are encouraged to solve problems with words instead of force. If one person calls a "circle," everyone must stop to discuss the issue.

Only 10 percent of the kids in Missouri's juvenile jails end up in adult prison, according to Missouri Division of Youth Services. In other states, that number is as high as 40 percent.

Last month, the Justice Department said inmates in New York were routinely subjected to excessive force.

But in Missouri, without using confinement or prison tactics, children in the juvenile system are four times less likely to be assaulted by other inmates than in other juvenile detention programs, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Additionally, they are almost never assaulted by guards or staff members.

These children also get something else not often seen in prisons: hugs.

"Some of these kids come from an environment where they've never been hugged," said Kim Orear, a group leader at Waverly. "We will never replace the parent that never paid attention to them ... but what we do do is show them that they are worthy of hugs."