An Assessment of the Effectiveness of an Intensive Treatment Program for Severely Mentally Disturbed Juvenile Offenders

This study is a follow-up of a 1992 analysis of juvenile offenders with severe mental and behavioral disorders who completed an intensive treatment program on the Intensive Treatment Unit (ITU) at a midwestern juvenile correctional facility. The recidivism of this group was compared with that of a control group of offenders who were not on the ITU as a means of assessing (a) overall program effectiveness and (b) status as a mentally disturbed offender on the ITU as a predictive factor for further criminal and violent behavior This study specifically compared these two groups in rates of reoffending, type of reoffending, and sentencing. The results showed that ITU and control subjects did not differ significantly on any of these variables. It was concluded that mentally disturbed offenders who complete intensive treatment programming reduce their risk for further reoffending, including future violent offending, to levels similar to that of juvenile offenders from the general institution population.