Legislature(1997 - 1998)
04/28/1998 03:15 PM House HES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 426 - JUVENILE BOOT CAMP PROGRAM Number 0063 CHAIRMAN BUNDE said the first order of business to come before the Committee was HB 426, "An Act relating to the establishment of Operation About Face as an alternative type of juvenile detention and treatment." He asked Representative Mulder to come forward to present his bill. Number 0080 REPRESENTATIVE ELDON MULDER, Alaska State Legislature, sponsor of HB 426, said for the past several years, the Alaska National Guard has been running the Challenge Program which is addressed and focused toward juveniles who are at risk. House Bill 426 takes it one step further and proposes the "Operation About Face" program to run side-by-side with the Challenge Program. The "Operation About Face" Program would focus on juveniles who are actually confined or placed in juvenile facilities, but would allow them the opportunity to go into a 22-week program similar to a boot camp program as a means of confinement and to rehabilitation. He said Alaska had the luxury of learning from other states and HB 426 is a model used by many states. He noted a couple states have done very well with the program while other states have failed because too many kids were thrown into the program without adequate oversight and supervision or after-care. This legislation focuses on adequate supervision throughout the program and supervision in after care. Number 0195 REPRESENTATIVE MULDER said the purpose of House Bill 426 is to allow the Department of Health and Social Services to provide an alternative means of dealing with juvenile offenders. An "Operation About Face" Program is designed to take first time juvenile offenders and provide them with the skills and attitudes they will need to become productive Alaskans. The program will consist of a 22-week period of intense military-style physical training, work, and discipline and a period of after-care consisting of not less than six months of intensive probation supervision and services. The program would include education, job training and placement, community service, substance abuse counseling and treatment, health and mental health care and continuous individualized case management. Once a juvenile is assigned to the custody of the department, the department will select which juveniles they feel will most benefit from the program. Juveniles may be assigned to the program if the juvenile: 1) has not been adjudicated delinquent, or committed to the custody of the department more than once; 2) is over 16 years of age but not more than 18 years of age at the time of placement; 3) has been committed to the custody of the department for not less than 160 days; 4) has not been convicted of or adjudicated delinquent for a sexual offense; and 5) has not previously completed the program. REPRESENTATIVE MULDER stated these last five points focus on the strengths of the programs that have been successful. He didn't believe this legislation at this late date would move all the way through the legislative process, but he expressed his appreciation to the committee for hearing the bill. He didn't view this bill as a final solution to the problem of juvenile detention, but rather as a piece of the puzzle that provides an alternative to simply throwing kids behind bars. Number 0360 CHAIRMAN BUNDE asked if Representative Mulder conceptualized this as being a parallel program to the Challenge Program or would these kids be intermingled with the Challenge Program. REPRESENTATIVE MULDER said it would be parallel. CHAIRMAN BUNDE said his experience with the Challenge Program has been very positive, but he wanted to relate an experience: "I went to one of their first graduations and these kids were really spiffed up and looking great and after it was all over, there was lots of hugging and carrying on and I ran into two of these guys in the men's room and they were hugging each other and they were so happy and for former, what I would have called for a lack of a better term, "street toughs", they were pretty emotional and one said to the other, 'Man, we made it; we got our GEDs and we're not in jail.' At first I thought boy, what an indictment of the program, but then I thought, they're right - they wouldn't have their GED and they probably would be in jail." He said this program is keeping some kids out of jail, and the program being proposed by Representative Mulder is a parallel program that would keep kids from going back to jail. REPRESENTATIVE MULDER said that was absolutely true. He added the Challenge Program has been far more successful than he imagined and because of its success, he believed it made good sense to run a program utilizing the same instructors, the same regiment, at the same location, but the separation of fence, but utilizing that same primary focus that "Challenge" is going toward. Number 0472 CHAIRMAN BUNDE asked if the funds for this program would come from the Department of Correction's budget or new money. REPRESENTATIVE MULDER said it's new money, and it's one of the hurdles that need to be overcome. He noted there are proposals to expand MacLaughlin Youth Center again, as well as other juvenile facilities around the state and as he started looking at the matrix at what needs to be done in terms of juvenile corrections, he believed this is one piece that should be explored. Number 0523 REPRESENTATIVE TOM BRICE asked, "Why not specifically -- delinquents who have been adjudicated for a sexual offense -- in my talking and dealing with all these folks, those are probably the people that need the most intensive work." REPRESENTATIVE MULDER said it was mostly from the predation factor; that this is reduced down to a somewhat minimum security operation and nothing would ruin a program faster than to have an unwanted encounter and because both sexes are involved in the program, most successful states have stayed away from including individuals convicted of those types of crimes as participants in the program. Number 0597 REPRESENTATIVE J. ALLEN KEMPLEN asked the reason why Representative Mulder chose 16 as the age for participants in the program. REPRESENTATIVE MULDER said it was in the model and basically those are the individuals addressed in the Challenge Program. He added the Challenge Program currently is applied to youth 16-, 17- and 18-years-old and it is his intent to run this program parallel to the Challenge Program. Number 0650 REPRESENTATIVE KEMPLEN remarked one of the issues he has come across is the need for programs designated for youth at a younger age. He recently learned that the sixth grade is a transition period in the development of youth and Anchorage, for example, has a fairly substantial momentum to create middle schools for sixth, seventh and eighth grades because they are recognizing that as a transition period for kids. His constituents have often expressed the need for this type of program for 11- and 12-year-old kids, which is the critical phase of development. He noted that most programs are for 16- and 17-year-old kids, after they're locked into the juvenile pattern. He asked if there was any opportunity to make this type of program applicable to a younger age group in terms of operating as a parallel path to compliment the Challenge Program. REPRESENTATIVE MULDER said Representative Kemplen had brought up a lot of good points, most of which he agreed with in terms of being able to attack the problem as early as possible. He was attempting to stay within the constraints of the focus of Challenge and provide that parallel so as not to create a lot of new operational expenses; it certainly could be a lot more expensive than what's projected now. He said the Department of Health and Social Services may be the appropriate agency to discuss the potential opportunities for the younger age groups. He commented his focus has really been to create the parallel track and in so doing, it not only helps with this program, but because there's a certain amount of economy and size being provided to the program, it helps make the Challenge Program more cost efficient. That is a concern of his because the federal government is putting more of the financial burden of the Challenge Program on to the state, so if that program can be more fully utilized to not only run these at risk youth, but also the juvenile detainees, it would make that program more efficient and more justified. CHAIRMAN BUNDE asked Mr. Buttcane from the Department of Health and Social Services to come before the committee at this time. Number 0930 ROBERT BUTTCANE, Administrative Juvenile Probation Officer, Department of Health and Social Services, said the department's official position is to oppose HB 426 because of some technical issues, but conceptually strongly supports the boot camp concept. He commented that as Representative Mulder had pointed out, the Challenge Program is a proven, successful program that really is a viable option for a number of young people. The program proposed in this bill, "Operation About Face" has shown some promise and potential in other states. The Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention has studied this type of program and has found it is an effective intermediate intervention when it is coupled with a strong after-care component, which HB 426 does provide. He said one of the technical problems the department has with HB 426 is that because it's written as an alternative to juvenile institutional placement, the department doesn't know if it would be able to generate sufficient numbers of referrals to justify an operational budget or the expenditure of building facilities to house this kind of program. He didn't see that as an insurmountable problem in that when looking at some of the other kinds of offender populations that could be channeled into this program, he thought some of those practical needs could be met in terms of getting sufficient numbers to justify the development and operation of a program. MR. BUTTCANE said the department has discussed this with the people from the Challenge Program, as well as the National Guard and everyone is supportive of the concept, but further discussions regarding the details are needed. Number 1075 MR. BUTTCANE said with regard to Representative Kemplen's concern about younger adolescents, typically mixing an older adolescent group with a younger population is not advisable for a number of reasons: different cognitive developmental stages, different issues, et cetera. That's not to say that the younger offender population needs should be ignored, but quite honestly, the department's resources have been devoted to the middle or later adolescent offender populations. He added this type of program nationwide has been more successful with the older adolescent population and is geared to that type of offender population which he thought should be continued, but efforts should be made to enhance the resources for the other age group through some other venue. Number 1118 REPRESENTATIVE BRICE said inasmuch as the proposal is to run the Challenge and Operation About Face side-by-side, he wondered if there would be a problem housing adjudicated juvenile delinquents with minors who have not been adjudicated a delinquent. MR. BUTTCANE said it was his understanding there would be two separate programs so the adjudicated youth would be housed separately and would actually be going through a more intense type of program than what the population currently enrolled in the Challenge Program would be subject to. He noted there are some differences between the two programs in terms of the national development of these different programs - the Challenge Program is seen more as a voluntary intermediate intervention approach, whereas the Operation About Face Program is one where the court and the youth corrections entities have compelled the person's attendance in that program, although there is some level of willingness on the part of the participant or they wouldn't be necessarily be selected. The levels of freedoms, the levels of choices, the willingness to participate in certain activities or components of the program are different when looking at the adjudicated population as opposed to those who have voluntarily agreed to participate. He reiterated they really are two separate groups and it's his understanding the department would look at a whole new program, hopefully, running parallel to the Challenge Program but there wouldn't be the intermingling of the populations. Number 1222 REPRESENTATIVE KEMPLEN asked if the department's data indicates a number of adjudicated youth in early adolescence or is it not until later on in the youthful years. MR. BUTTCANE didn't recall what the numbers were for Alaska, but there has been an increase in the numbers of younger adolescents being adjudicated delinquent, but that doesn't constitute the majority of youth that are adjudicated in the state; the majority still fall in the middle adolescent range of ages 15-16. He added in general, the department is seeing an increase in the number of younger children being referred into the delinquency system; there's an increase in the numbers of 10- and 11-year-olds coming to attention and absent a real serious violation, the department tries not to adjudicate them delinquent but rather try to work with them through other means and avenues. He added those resources need to be improved and enhanced which is being looked at by the department. He noted there's a lot of family work involved with the younger adolescents as opposed to the older adolescents - it's a different approach, a different program perspective. His personal experience has been that when an 11- or 12-year-old delinquent is adjudicated, it's almost condemning them to a life though the delinquency system so a number of options are tried to keep them out of the formal delinquency system. REPRESENTATIVE KEMPLEN reiterated that early adolescence is the period of time that really needs to be focused on in terms of adequate services being available to meet their needs. He asked Mr. Buttcane to provide him with information on what programs the department has available for the early adolescence group. CHAIRMAN BUNDE thanked Mr. Buttcane for his comments and asked John Cyr to come forward to present his remarks at this time. Number 1400 JOHN CYR, President, NEA-Alaska, said NEA-Alaska is in favor of this type of alternative program. He stated the state needs to take a hard look at this issue and figure out how to build a program. There are too many young people in this age bracket and younger who need that kind of special care, so the more that can be done to build alternative programs for these children, the better off the state will eventually be. Number 1440 CHAIRMAN BUNDE asked if anyone else wished to testify on HB 426. There being no additional witnesses, he closed public testimony and said HB 426 would be held in committee.
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