Juvenile Treatment Programs

A new juvenile treatment program has been introduced in St. Charles, IL. 

From The Beacon-News:

ST. CHARLES TWP. -- Court services departments in the 16th Judicial Circuit will add a new juvenile treatment program that has had better success nationally than residential treatment programs.

It's called MST -- Multi Systemic Therapy -- and it provides counseling not only for moderate- to high-risk juveniles but also to their families. It looks at the entire community when considering ways to help at-risk youth, and it is done without putting the juvenile into residential treatment.

"The trouble with residential is that it doesn't address the family at all," Kane County Court Services Director Mary Hyatt said. "When you release them, they go back into the same situation. The family hasn't changed."

MST has been used throughout the country, and Hyatt said its success rate "exceeds residential care." Because it is new to the 16th Circuit, Hyatt said the three 16th Circuit counties -- Kane, Kendall and DeKalb -- are "ramping this up slowly," starting with 15 juvenile spots. Of those, 11 spots will go to Kane, and two each to Kendall and DeKalb.

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The program takes three to five months to complete. It will be funded entirely by fees charged those who are put on probation.

Read more here.

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