from Ed Ford (920517:12:35)
To All..
The other night I had my meeting of local control theorists who are
trying to implement these ideas in their jobs. Alan Wright (he
attended our last conference and should be at the next one) was
recently appointed superintendent of schools for the Arizona Department
of Juvenile Corrections. He has been working night and day at the two
major lockup institutions, where the toughest juveniles in the state
are sent, trying to implement a new program, using PCT as the basis.
In the past, diagnostic teams have decided what the juvenile would be
doing and establishing their plans. Juveniles were staffed monthly and
told what they were doing wrong. Juveniles never sensed any control as
to when they'd get out. It was always kind of vague. All they learned
from the staff was how to be critized. Now, things have changed,
thanks to Alan. First, there are those who know they are getting out
(like at age 18) or are going to be transferred to an adult prison.
These could care less and continually cause trouble. They have been
separated from the rest of the population and are in highly restricted
and supervised units. But for the others, things have changed. Alan
and I have been working on the practical applications of PCT to this
kind of setting for several years. At Adobe Mountain (the toughest)
the juveniles had taken over the place. Alan really tightened the
place down. Then each juvenile was asked as they entered the
institution what they wanted. The universal answer was to get out.
He'd then ask them what they had to do to get out. He'd explain to
those who didn't know. To the acting out juveniles, he'd say "is what
you're doing getting you what you want, which is to get out?" Alan has
the juveniles working in small teams of 36 with three teachers, each
teacher directly responsible for 12 juveniles. The job of the teacher
is to help the juvenile work toward getting out, which translates into
getting certain tasks done in school and following the standards and
rules in the classroom. The old idea of being in so long (like six
months) and then being released has been replaced by the requirement to
get the signoff (approval) of each of the juvenile's direct supervisors
in education at the school, and the line officer and case manager where
he lives, and the person in charge of activity (work or recreation).
Everyone one has to sign off saying he is following the rules and
working to his best ability and accomplishing his tasks. Any time they
act out and are sent to lock up or an intensive treatment unit for more
acting out juveniles, that time doesn't count against their credit for
getting out of the facility. Time is no longer important. Only
achieving tasks that reflect increased responsibility will get them out
of there. The juvenile is given total control over when he gets out of
the facility. He has to accomplish certain goals but he alone has
control over how quickly he can get released. Obviously, the more
violent the effender's crime, the more responsibility has to be shown
over a greater period of time. It's amazing how the place has settled
down. And, it's amazing how quickly acting out juveniles settle down
once they learn they have control over when they get out. Although to
you freedom loving control systems on the net, this might not sound
like PCT, but within the reality of the juvenile correctional system,
asking them what they want and giving them control as to how long they
are in a treatment center they don't like has given them a sense of
control over their destiny they've never had in the past. There seems
to be less violent and more thoughtful reorganization going on. When
they do act out, the supervisors just asked, "Is what you're doing
getting you out of here?" or "Do you still want to work at getting out
of here?"
Greg - would suggest Standards as one of the topics for the next Closed
Loop.
Rick - Thanks for the comments. I'd like to get together with you at
the conference and learn a little more about how your spreadsheet
works.
Ed Ford ATEDF@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU
10209 N. 56th St., Scottsdale, Arizona 85253 Ph.602 991-4860