Last Chance in Texas takes us inside a treatment program for the most severely violent youth criminals in the state.
Group Treatment for Violent Criminal Youth
Treatment in the Capital Offenders program is the final chance for violent youth to avoid the Texas prison system.
The average sentence of a youth at Giddings is twenty-five years, but those who successfully complete treatment are almost always released early on parole, often after less than three years. Youth criminals who fail to complete the Capital and Serious Violent Offenders program at Giddings are transferred to the Texas state prison system, where they have very little chance of being granted parole. Most serve sentences of 25 to 40 years in adult prison.In Capital Offenders group (as it is called throughout most of Hubner's book), each participant must share two stories: the "life story," which is an account of the youth's experiences of trauma and victimization, and the "crime story," in which the youth relates his or her criminal history. Events from both stories are dramatized through group roleplays, forcing the storyteller to re-experience the events in an emotionally authentic way.
Fellow participants and group leaders provide feedback and support throughout this challenging process. The students are evaluated not only by the way they tell their own stories, but also on the quality of the feedback they give to others in the group. The goal of the Capital Offenders treatment program is to bring violent criminal youth back in touch with feelings they have walled off from their conscious awareness.
Treatment Works
The rate of recidivism for violent youth who make it through Capital Offenders is only ten percent.*
*For violent crimes, after 36 months on parole.
Treatment doesn't work for all violent youth criminals.
Last Chance in Texas profiles a teen murderer who failed to complete the Capital Offenders group.
One of the young men Hubner includes in his profile of the Capital Offenders treatment program does not get his "last chance." Mark is eighteen now. At seventeen, he murdered his girlfriend. The treatment team observes that Mark has not developed a sense of self-awareness, empathy, or accountability. They believe he may be a psychopath. The team decides to report Mark as a treatment failure, knowing that as a direct result of their report he will face a long prison sentence. Ultimately, Mark is sentenced to forty years in prison without the possibility of parole. Since he is nearly an adult, he will serve most of that sentence in the notorious Texas prison system with adult offenders.
Should youth criminals who don't improve in a treatment program have to serve 25-40 years in the adult prison system?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byYes. The punishment should fit the crime, no matter what the age of the criminal.
Shelley says:
Yes. A child knows right from wrong at an age MUCH less than 10 years old , so a teenager who commits a crime knows what he is doing wrong and is responsible for his actions, and he should be punished no differently than an adult who commits the same crime. A teenager should NOT be incarcerated WITH the adults, however.
Posted September 29, 2009
No. Even the most violent youth criminals are still kids, and they shouldn't be incarcerated with adults.
BabyCakesx7 says:
The fact that children are sent to prison is an outrage. It truly disgusts me that our Government would allow this to happen. Yes they are still children and studies show that a brain is not fully developed until the age of 20+. These kids do not belong in prison with adults nor do the petty crimes need to be treated more severely than most serious crimes. It is pathetic!
Posted April 05, 2009
Stazjia says:
There are very few middle class young people in the prison system which indicates it's upbringing, poverty, poor schooling, abuse, and lack of life chances that leads kids to commit serious offences. Writing a young man off at the age of 18 is just compounding this. Also I shudder to think what will happen to a teenage boy in the general prison population. On a practical level, that boy has no hope and will be a constant expense to the state. I believe that prison should be a redemptive and educative process so that most, non-sociopathic, prisoners should have the hope of parole. Prisons shouldn't just be warehouses for storing people we want to punish.
Posted April 04, 2009
cjsysreform says:
Studies have suggested that teenage brains are quite different from those of adults, and that the brain does not reach developmental maturity until the mid-twenties. Sentencing teenagers as if they were adults fails to account for this.
Posted April 03, 2009
The Path to Rehabilitation: Empathy and Accountability
In treatment, violent youth criminals learn to experience empathy.
It's very common for violent youth to believe they are at fault for the abuse and neglect they suffered in the past. Because they cannot stand to experience the intense shame that went along with this belief, they shut off every tender emotion inside them, including empathy and affection.
The constriction of tender feelings has made these kids quick to get angry in response to any challenge to their sense of personal dignity, and quick to respond in violent ways to eliminate such threats. Their inability to feel empathy for the targets of their rage makes it possible for them to do things that are inconceivable to most of us.
Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth
Amazon Price: $10.88 (as of 12/05/2009)
Kids who commit extreme acts of violence are often called "superpredators," and many people consider them to be untreatable. But John Hubner shows us that in the Capital Offenders group treatment program at Giddings, violent juvenile offenders can and do develop empathy. They form close connections with each other through caring words and affectionate physical contact.
Share your thoughts on justice and rehabilitation for violent youth criminals.
Whether you've read Last Chance in Texas or not, you are welcome to comment here.
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Reply
- cjsysreform cjsysreform May 13, 2009 @ 7:02 am | in reply to Ramkitten
- Thanks, I hope you manage to get a copy. And, of course, once you've read it you must come back here and tell me what you thought. :)
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- Ramkitten Ramkitten May 12, 2009 @ 9:36 am
- Wow, what a well-written review (and then some). I'm going to see if this book is at our library here or can be borrowed from interlibrary loan. It sounds fascinating.
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- cjsysreform cjsysreform Apr 24, 2009 @ 12:34 am | in reply to Treasures-By-Brenda
- Thank you, Brenda. You're a peach.
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Reply
- Treasures-By-Brenda Treasures-By-Brenda Apr 14, 2009 @ 7:26 pm
- Another nicely done page.
Brenda
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- cjsysreform cjsysreform Apr 9, 2009 @ 12:05 pm | in reply to Amitabh1702
- Right, way to promote your group without talking about Last Chance in Texas or juvenile justice issues at all...
Nah, I'm not serious really. Thanks for the rating.
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Juvenile Justice and Violent Youth Criminals: Texas Today
Recent news on criminal youth in the Texas juvenile justice system.
- Ombudsman resigns after indictment
- ... the Youth Commission and replace it with increased community-based corrections programs and state-run lockups for the most violent juvenile offenders. ...
- Cruel and unusual: No life without parole for juvenile offenders
- ... while 39 states have none, including Texas, which ? as of September, 2009 ? does not permit life without parole sentences for offenders under 17. ...
- Line Drawn in One Case Dissolves in Another
- Here is an example of a standard, one proposed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. this month at Supreme Court arguments over whether juvenile offenders ...
- Sex offender in Waco arrested
- © 2009 AP WACO, Texas ? A 24-year-old registered sex offender from Waco faces new indecency with a child charges. Bobby James Kelley is in the McLennan ...
More on Troubled Teens, Criminal Justice and Treatment
If you liked this review, check out my other pages on crime and punishment.
Come argue with me!Are abused kids likely to grow up to be abusive parents?
Violent criminals: evil or sick?
Should we medicate kids for ADHD?
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Aaron Kipnis is clearly passionate about his subject. As an adult, he has made a strong commitment to helping troubled boys and young men turn their lives around. I'd like to start my review by quoting an important statement Kipnis makes on page...
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Understanding Violent Crime
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According to James Gilligan, psychiatrist and author of Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic, behind every violent crime lies a common emotional experience: shame. Gilligan argues that shame is not only the main psychological factor that driv...
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