Clash of Views on Treating Juvenile Offenders
Local juvenile justice advocates opposed to incarceration of youth offenders attended a public meeting Wednesday to criticize Milwaukee County administrators who have recommended building a state-financed 36-bed secure facility here as an alternative to the troubled Lincoln Hills boys prison in northern Wisconsin.
"Reliance on incarceration has failed," said Sharlen Moore, a representative of the Youth Justice Milwaukee coalition.
"Seventy-five percent of youth in the system are re-arrested within three years," Moore said at a meeting of the County Board's Health and Human Needs Committee.
Rather than asking the state to spend millions on a new secure facility in Milwaukee County for non-serious juvenile offenders, Moore suggested investing an equal amount in community-based treatment services to better help rehabilitate youths.
