The Office of Juvenile Justice opened a new, modern rehabilitation facility in Bunkie Tuesday after months of delays. The first 12 incarcerated youths will be housed in the facility, which is set to expand over the next few months to 72 beds. Deputy Secretary Dr. James Bueche says it’s based on the “Missouri Model”.
“If you look at the national data, the facilities that are built on this model do a whole lot better from a outcome and recidivism standpoint than other larger facilities.”
The Acadiana Center for Youth was allocated four-million dollars by legislators to get operations off the ground.
Testing in other states has shown that kids who participate in programs that are less punitive, and more oriented towards rehabilitation, are less likely to end up in the adult prison system later in life. Bueche says that change starts by rehabbing kids in a smaller, more focused environment.
“All of the dorms are built on having 12 kids, where our other facilities can house up to 50 kids in a dorm. We can be more therapuetic, and have staff more engaged with the kids.”
Bueche says they plan to use this model moving forward for all new facilities, and plan to help pay for future construction using the savings you can generate from housing youths in the smaller rehabilitation centers.
“We see that as a win-win, if we can move that forward to get into new facilities that are producing better outcomes, without any additional state general fund to do that.”
Those new facilities may be needed sooner rather than later, as an LSU study predicts the juvenile prison population will increase by 67 people in 2020 when 17-year-old violent offenders are no longer prosecuted as adults.
