Not all youth qualify or are appropriate for every program. Each youth’s assigned case manager will explain which DYS programs the youth must complete during their initial case management review, and their teacher of record will explain their assigned educational/vocational classes.
Indiana Department of Correction’s Division of Youth Services Programs and Services
After a youth is sent to the Indiana Department of Correction’s Division of Youth Services, they are assessed at our one (1) of our Intake facilities for two (2) weeks. Based on the results, they are then assigned individualized core programs and services:
Core Programs and Services:
- One type of intervention is matching youth to core cognitive-behavioral case management programs, which:
- Assist them in reducing their risk to reoffend;
- Increasing their ability to be positive, productive, and law-abiding citizens, by addressing their criminogenic needs; and,
- Equipping them with the necessary pro-social and coping skills to avoid further criminal behavior and help them get their needs met in positive ways after release.
- Youth may also be matched to behavioral health individual and group therapy/treatment, including sex offender, addiction recovery, and mental health programs and services delivered by licensed and contracted behavioral health staff.
Youth also have access to a fully accredited full-time school and vocational opportunities.
- Youth receive educational testing and are placed in secondary education classes working toward junior high/high school credits, including a High School Diploma, or they are enrolled in High School Equivalency Track (HiSet) classes.
- Youth receive an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) or an Individual Education Plan (IEP) with accommodations made based upon need.
- Youth are in class Monday through Friday full-time even if they earn their HiSET to continue to earn credits. Often, graduates are placed in .
- All teachers are certified in their area of instruction as well as being special education certified.
- All youth receive transitional consultations for transitioning back to public school, moving onto to college/post-secondary education, career planning, and/or obtaining and maintaining part-time employment (resume and interview skills, strategies for maintaining employment, etc.).
Youth have some access to vocational services, including:
LaPorte JCF
- ServSafe.
Logansport JCF
- Welding;
- C-Tech - Introduction to Telecommunications, Copper Systems, Grounding & Bonding, and Fiber Optics; and,
- They are working on getting ServSafe.
Pendleton JCF
- C-Tech - Introduction to Telecommunications, Copper Systems, Grounding & Bonding, and Fiber Optics; and,
- Catapult Manufacturing.
Core Cognitive-Behavioral Programs
Core cognitive-behavioral programs help youth develop accountability and positive beliefs. Youth also learn and practice skills that help them reduce their risk of committing crimes in the future. Core treatment education programs are facilitated by correctional counselor/case managers, are offered at all facilities, and include:
- The Why Try Learning Strategies Program
The Why Try Learning Strategies Program
Why Try is brief, solution-focused cognitive-behavioral treatment with a strengths-based approach. Why Try helps youth overcome their challenges, achieve positive goals, practice life skills, and develop plans and support for re-entering their community. Why Try pairs cognitive-behavioral lessons with easy-to-remember pictures. These pictures (the metaphors) teach social, coping, and emotional regulation skills to youth in a way they can understand and remember. Youth also learn positive ways to answer the question: “Why try in life?” The metaphors are reinforced by supplements that include short reflective writing; music and music-based projects; art projects; and hands-on physical/experiential activities.
- All facilities offer Why Try.
- Why Try is facilitated for 1 hour per session, 4 sessions/week, for a minimum of 12 weeks. Youth receive a credit towards education for completing Why Try.
- Moral Reconation Therapy
Moral ReconationTherapy
MRT is an intensive CBT that seeks to decrease recidivism among juveniles by increasing moral reasoning. MRT targets youth who are high risk to re-offend and/or are high risk in pro-criminal sentiments, criminal thinking, criminal lifestyle, and anti-social attitudes/values. MRT focuses on seven basic treatment issues: confrontation of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors; assessment of current relationships; reinforcement of positive behavior and habits; positive identity formation; enhancement of self-concept; decrease in hedonism and development of frustration tolerance; and development of higher stages of moral reasoning.
- All facilities offer MRT.
- MRT is facilitated for 1 hour, 2 days/week, for a minimum of 12 weeks.
- Anger Management
Anger Management
This program is designed to help youth understand and utilize ways to not only recognize their anger but also control it through making appropriate choices. Topics discussed include what causes anger, growing up with anger, how emotions develop, relaxation, managing anger, self-talk, action controls, etc.
- LaPorte and Logansport JCF offer Anger Management CBT.
- Pendleton JCF offers it individually with youth as needed, as they offer ART instead (see below).
- Anger Management is facilitated for 1 hour, 1 day/week, for a minimum of 12 weeks.
- Cognitive Behavioral Interventions – Core Youth (CBI-CY)
Cognitive Behavioral Interventions – Core Youth (CBI-CY)
Developed by the University of Cincinnati Corrections Institute (UCCI) in partnership with the Bureau of Justice Assistance and Council of State Governments, CBI-CY is an intensive CBT program. Its curriculum is designed for youth involved with the juvenile justice system who are at moderate to high risk for reoffending. As the name of the curriculum suggests, this intervention relies on a cognitive-behavioral approach to teach youth strategies for identifying and managing risk factors. This program places heavy emphasis on skill-building activities to assist with cognitive, social, emotional, and coping skill development. Cognitive-behavioral curricula places certain demands on participants requiring them to be able to read, write, and understand some abstract concepts. Modified worksheets were created and tips are given to facilitators throughout the curriculum to help accommodate youth at varying cognitive levels.
- LaPorte and Logansport JCF offer CBI-CY.
- Pendleton JCF offers ART instead (see below).
- CBI-CY is facilitated for 1.5 hours, 2 days/week, for 16 weeks minimum.
- Aggression Replacement Training (ART)
Aggression Replacement Training (ART)
Intensive CBT program that provides youth with cognitive skill development to address their deficiency in pro-social skills, especially in the areas of emotional dysregulation, intensive anger management, and aggressive behavior. ART is a multidimensional psychoeducational intervention designed to promote prosocial behavior in chronically aggressive and violent adolescents using three (3) components to develop social skills (Skill-Streaming) , emotional control (Anger-Control Training), and Moral Reasoning.
- Pendleton JCF offers ART.
- Each week one session each of skill-streaming, anger-control training, and moral reasoning component are delivered.
- The curriculum is delivered for 1 hour, 3x/week, for 10 weeks.
- VOICES
VOICES
VOICES is a gender-specific CBT program of self-discovery and empowerment offered only at the LaPorte Juvenile Correctional Facility. It encourages female juveniles to seek and celebrate their “true selves” and explore issues important in the lives of adolescent girls. The curriculum uses a variety of therapeutic approaches, including psycho-educational, cognitive-behavioral, interactive journaling, expressive arts, and relational theory.
- VOICES is facilitated for 1 hour, 2 days/week, for 2 weeks.
- Inside-Out Dad
Inside-Out Dad
Inside-Out Dad is a program designed to connect youth who are fathers to their families and prepare them for release from a juvenile correctional facility. Facilitators meet weekly with a small group of youth and guide them through twelve core education and four optional re-entry sessions that address fathering knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors.
- Logansport and Pendleton JCF offer this program.
- Inside-Outside Dad is facilitated for 1 hour, 1 day/week, for 12 weeks.
Core Treatment/Therapeutic Programs
Core group therapeutic services are facilitated by trained behavioral health professionals and/or addiction recovery specialists:
- Indiana’s Sex Offender Management and Monitoring Program (SOMM)
Indiana’s Sex Offender Management and Monitoring Program (SOMM)
Provided to youth who are adjudicated of a sex offense. SOMM is facilitated by Liberty mental health professionals. Youth receive sex offender specific treatment that requires them to take responsibility for their offenses, progress through sex-offender specific, intensive treatment; and prepare to accept polygraph examinations and specialized parole stipulations after release to the community. Male youth in SOMM are housed in a single unit at Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility. Female youth complete SOMM individually at LaPorte Juvenile Correctional Facility under the supervision of an assigned Liberty behavioral health professional who works with youth remotely or during schedule site visits. SOMM is a minimum of 9.0 months long.
- The Behavioral Health Department
The Behavioral Health Department
Offers both routine and emergency services to any youth who requires them. These include comprehensive behavioral health screening and evaluation when a youth enters the facility; individual, group, and family therapy when indicated; and medication management services by a psychiatrist. For youth in crisis, daily assessment and monitoring is conducted by behavioral health teams to ensure youth safety and to help youth return to routine daily activities as soon as they are able.
- The Behavioral Health Department also includes a team of Addiction Recovery specialists who provide substance use assessment and treatment to youth who have struggled with drug or alcohol use in the past. Addiction Recovery Services (ARS) are organized by Levels of Care from drug education through intensive addiction recovery programming and an Aftercare Component to help youth transition to the community/
- The Behavioral Health Department works in close collaboration with the other professionals at the facility, including Custody, Education, and Program Directors/Counselors. This collaboration ensures that youth receive the most thorough care and skill development while they complete the requirements of their assigned programs and services.
- The Behavioral Health Department prides itself on providing the highest available quality of care to incarcerated individuals. The Addiction Recovery Services, Mental Health Services, and Physical Health Services provide numerous services within our facilities and coordinate services for individuals released back into the community.