Closing Institutions for Juvenile Offenders: The Maryland Experience (Criminology Studies)

In 1988 Maryland closed one of its two juvenile offenders training schools. This volume summarizes evidence about the state's experience with sharply curtailing juvenile institutionalization by closing the Montrose Training School. It examines the effect of this decision on the residential placement pattern, attitude, experiences, and behaviours of juvenile offenders in Maryland. The text also reports the results of an empirical study based on data collected from nearly 1000 youths over a several-year period. The study examines three primary questions: what immediate effects did the policy to deinstitutionalize have on placements and services provided to the youths released during the transition time and later; what effects did the closing have on subsequent offending behaviour; and what effects did the closing have on subsequent schooling and work experiences, family processes and arrangements, peer influences and psychological adjustment of the juveniles.