Abstract
The most successful programming offered in juvenile justice facilities do not transfer easily back to communities to give youth the opportunity to practice intervention skills once they return home. Having this opportunity is particularly important to youth leaving state custody given that they disproportionately return to poor communities and disrupted families that both exacerbate behaviors associated with juvenile justice involvement and act as barriers to much needed services and support. With this in mind, a randomized controlled trial was used to quantitatively assess the ability of freely available Internet-based mindfulness meditation instruction to increase mindfulness in treatment youth, with weekly journals and open-ended post-test questions used to qualitatively explore the treatment experience. Findings suggest that an Internet delivery of mindfulness meditation is both engaging to incarcerated youth, helpful to them in coping with life in a juvenile justice facility, and able to increase mindfulness in youth who practice it.
Highlights
Background and SignificanceIt is well documented that incarcerated youth face disproportionately high rates of community and family stressors outside of custody known to increase the likelihood of delinquent and aggressive behavior (Baglivio et al, 2014; Bjerk, 2007; Carlson, 2006; Smith & Ecob, 2007)
The purpose of this study is to identify an effective intervention for incarcerated youth that 1) increases their ability to cope with the stressors that exacerbate the emotional and behavioral problems associated with juvenile justice involvement and 2) is delivered in such a way that they have continued, free access after release, regardless of family or community resources
A systematic review of 198 juvenile justice intervention studies found that only five studies assessed transition or post-release programming, suggesting that transition programming is either a rare practice with youth leaving custody or that such programming is implemented with no evidence (Evans-Chase & Zhou, 2014)
Summary
It is well documented that incarcerated youth face disproportionately high rates of community and family stressors outside of custody known to increase the likelihood of delinquent and aggressive behavior (Baglivio et al, 2014; Bjerk, 2007; Carlson, 2006; Smith & Ecob, 2007). Identifying mechanisms that provide access to continued support once youth leave custody could help to ensure their success while at the same time serving the goals of the juvenile justice system
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