Can the Massachusetts Juvenile System Survive the Eighties?

Abstract

The authors, a former Commissioner and a former Deputy Commis sioner of the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services, offer the thesis that the serious offender represents the ultimate test in any ju venile correctional system. They portray how the Massachusetts community-based correctional system has, in its first decade, met that test, and indicate what further work must be done to ensure that the system will survive the challenge of the conservative eighties. The article traces the development of juvenile correction in Massachusetts from the establishment of the first juvenile correctional institution in 1847 through the 1970s, a period marked by the rapid deinstitu tionalization of juvenile offenders and construction of the community-based system, including the subsystem of secure care for serious juvenile offenders.