ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – States across the U.S. spend an average of $88,000 a year to lock up just one juvenile offender. But one national strategy group says that is not the case in Missouri.
Missouri is being called a model state by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It’s director Bart Lubow says juvenile violence has decreased in Missouri in the last decade and he makes a distinct connection between that and the state’s adoption of smaller care facilities with more attention to individuals.
“Missouri made a very clear decision many years ago when they closed down the big state training school that it would never go back to a large care model” said Lubow.
He says Missouri’s juvenile offenders don’t just serve time. They are put through a well developed regiment that they easily understand, buy into and earn their way out.
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