Working in institutions Treatment of juvenile delinquency between

Working in institutions: Treatment of juvenile delinquency: between punishment and resocialization (Estonia) Kristi Kõiv Ph. D University of Tartu, Estonia Kristi Kõiv

Key points This paper will refer to the specific problems of working in secure institutions, and will illustrate how these environments have become more oriented towards resocialization in recent years in Estonia. Specifically - the shift away from punishment model towards resocialization model is a key challenge for the development of correctional system in Estonia. Kristi Kõiv

Working in institutions: juveniledelinquency: delinquency Treatment of juvenile between punishment and resocialization (Estonia) Kristi Kõiv

Working in in institutions: Treatment of juvenile delinquency: between punishmentand andresocialization (Estonia)

Institutions: Who are the high risk offenders under the age of 18? Correctional facility Training school Kristi Kõiv

Institutions: Who are the high risk offenders under the age of 18? Correctional facility for juvenile delinquents; a part of the criminal justice system of a country; such that imprisonment or incarceration is the legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime Kristi Kõiv

Management structure of the prison system Tallinn prison Murru prison Rummu prison Viljandi prison Ämari prison Ministry of Justice Pärnu prison Harku prison Tartu prison Maardu prison

Institutions: Who are the high risk offenders under the age of 18? Politseistatistika, 2006

Institutions: Who are the high risk offenders under the age of 18? Training school *are an educational institutions for juvenile delinquents where pupils not only study, but also live, amongst their peers, *are facilities that exists for the incarceration of youth who have committed the most serious of criminal offenders for which, it adults, they would be sentenced to periods of imprisonment; *also incarcerate number of youth who have committed lesser crimes for which juvenile justice system will not or cannot utilize alternative, less restrictive placements

Management structure of the training school system Puiatu special school Ministry of Education and Sciences Kaagvere special school Tapa special school Kristi Kõiv

Criminal statistics: official records High risk offenders under the age of 18 in years 1995– 2005: proportion from overall criminal acts The highest frequency of offending according to official records is during the years 16 -17 Source: Politseistatisika, 2006 Kristi Kõiv

Criminal statistics: official records Age of juvenile delinquents committed crimes during 1995– 2005 Under 16 Source: Politseistatistika, 2006 Kristi Kõiv

Institutions: Who are the high risk offenders under the age of 18? Self-reports Given the limitations of official statistics, the self-reports studies have a significant role to play in building a more adequate picture of the nature of adolescent offending Kristi Kõiv

ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR destructive PROPERTY VIOLATIONS AGGRESSION covert STATUS OFFENCES Source: Frick et al. , 1993 OPPOSITSIONAL nondestructive Kristi Kõiv

Self-reported frequent types of antisocial behavior: prison PROPERTY VIOLATIONS destructive Damaging property Theft (minor, medium and major items) Telling lies Theft of things (really unneeded) AGGRESSION Attacking someone with fists Gang fights Beating children Hurting someone on purpose covert Use of weapons Skipping school Running away from home Homosexual relations Dropping out of school Too fast and reckless driving Drinking alcohol Use narcotics STATUS OFFENCES overt Defying parents Disobeying parents Taking a car without its owner’s knowledge nondestructive OPPOSITSIONAL Kõiv, 2003 Kristi Kõiv

Self-reported frequent types of antisocial behavior: training school PROPERTY VIOLATIONS destructive Damaging property Theft (minor, medium and major items) Telling lies Theft of things (really unneeded) AGGRESSION Attacking someone with fists Gang fights Beating children Hurting someone on purpose covert Skipping school Running away from home Driving without a driver’s license Dropping out of school Too fast and reckless driving Drinking alcohol Use narcotics STATUS OFFENCES Defying parents Disobeying parents Taking a car without its owner’s knowledge nondestructive OPPOSITSIONAL Kõiv, 2003 Kristi Kõiv

Institutions: Who are the high risk offenders under the age of 18? Although often overlooked, there are similarities among juvenile delinquents in prison and in training school these two high risk offenders under the age of 18 have more in common in the area of nature of antisocial and criminal behavior measured by official records and self-reports. Kristi Kõiv

Working in in institutions: Treatment of juvenile delinquency: between punishmentand andresocialization (Estonia)

Institutions: punishment versus resocialization Correctional facility For the past fifteen years, the Estonian juvenile justice system has developed between punitive and rehabilitation-oriented responses to the social problems of youth delinquency. Following the deinstitutionalization trend in mental health, in the juvenile justice practices are characterized the same trends. Kristi Kõiv

Institutions: punishment versus resocialization In the 1990 s, these strategies were downplayed in favor of strict sanctions, incarceration, lengthier sentences, and certifying youths as adults. Stemming from this legacy of competing influences, the current juvenile justice system struggles to balance its orientation toward both corrections and resocialization. Kristi Kõiv

Institutions: punishment versus resocialization conclusion Correctional facility Nowadays correctional system is not oriented to young prisoners’ behavior but to their resocialization.

Institutions: punishment versus resocialization Training school Kivine, 2005 Kristi Kõiv

Training school What are the characteristics of nowadays training schools?

Always Struc- Free- Support Social tue dom relati 4 ons Acitvi- Emoti- Security Privacy ty nal feedback 3, 03 3 2, 62 2 2, 44 2, 38 2, 23 2, 10 1. 69 1 Never Dimensions of social-psychological climate of training school (Kõiv, Kristi 2003 Kõiv

Functions of training schools Integration of pupils to the sociaty Treatment Rechape of personality of pupils Life skills teaching Protection of pupils Moral education Upbringing of pupils Punishing of pupils Conrolling of pupils’ behavior Academical knowledge's Kõiv, 2007 Kristi Kõiv

Institutions: punishment versus resocialization conclusion Training school Nowadays system of training school is too much oriented to guaranteeing juvenile delinquents’ behavior and not their resocialization. .

Basic conflict between resocialization and punishment model: stemming from the history How to change the conflict? Kristi Kõiv

Institutions: punishment versus resocialization Seriously troubled young people in training schools in Estonia were the target group of a project funded by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research. The main purpose of the project (Kõiv, 2007) was to find evidence for a balance between two opposite approaches to dealing with young offenders – punishment versus resocialization. Kristi Kõiv

Institutions: punishment versus resocialization The project found overall evidence that punishment approaches are not as effective as structured intervention programmes that focus on cognitivebehavioural changes in young people. Support programmes that teach positive (pro)social behavior and other effective social/life skills, practical employment skills and emphasise a smooth transition from training school to mainstream school or the workplace, had relatively positive effects. Kristi Kõiv

Institutions: punishment versus resocialization The other focus of the project was to examine the nature and effectiveness of social networking among young people both in the school and after leaving the school. Young people with a long history of dissatisfaction at school often managed well when they had the possibility to settle into smaller classes with more individual attention from a supportive network of teachers and specialists. Despite training schools sometimes being a long way from home, they sometimes provided the greatest degree of stability and improved young people’s educational achievements. Kristi Kõiv

Institutions: punishment versus resocialization As opposed to the punishment approach, resocialization models help offenders to experience the rewards of positive or pro-social behaviors as they come to understand the root causes of their misconduct. Treatment-oriented programs also try to prepare youth for reintegration into the community through contact with families, schools, and other systems surrounding the young people. Kristi Kõiv

Summary The shift away from punishment towards resocialiation is a key challenge for the development of the whole correctional (especially training school) system in Estonia. Kristi Kõiv