article on juvenile offenders

I think it's worthwhile to wait through the commercial for the "free site pass" at salon.com today to read the article "Their Misspent Youth" by Ayelet Waldman. Usually, I'm pretty "meh" about her personal essays, but this article has some research behind the opinion. She gives an interesting comparison between two facilities. One follows a jail model and has a recidivism rate of about 90 percent. The second facility contains offenders who have much more violent offenses in general and follows a more school-like model. It has a recidivism rate of about 10 percent three years out.

I think that in older populations, perhaps some folks are too hardened to benefit from "rehabilitation," but if anyone has a chance to change, I'd think teenagers would be more pliable in that regard. It's an interesting read.