Issue 149: july 2011

more than two pro hib ited be hav iors dur -

ing the pe riod.  There were some 42

pro hib ited  be hav iours  that  re quired  token 

fines, six teen of which also car ried room

re stric tions of from one to three hours. 

No one was al lowed to speak with chil -

dren on room re stric tion, nei ther the

BSS’s nor their psychologist.  

When chil dren be came dis tressed, per -

haps curs ing, staff were not to at tempt to

de-es ca late chil dren.  They were only to

say, “That’s curs ing, that’s two to kens.” In

a ‘neu tral’ tone–not pu ni tively, and not

with any em pa thy.  Chil dren were then

ex pected to stop curs ing, go to their jar of 

ac cu mu lated to kens, take out two and

hand them to staff in pay ment of their

fine.

What chil dren often did was to es ca late 

fur ther, ‘earn ing’ more fines.  Even tu ally

they threw some thing or tore some thing

up (both were clas si fied as prop erty dam -

age and car ried a room re stric tion of

three hours in ad di tion to a fine), or at -

tacked staff (ag gres sion, an other

three-hour room re stric tion).  These ag -

gres sive  be hav iors  al most  al ways  re sulted

in the ‘ne ces sity’ for phys i cal re straint. 

There were usu ally about 30 ep i sodes of

phys i cal restraint in a given month. 

BSS’s were ex pected to re cord be hav -

iour ac cu rately and com pletely, and to

award to kens, im pose fines, en force re -

stric tions, and safely sub due chil dren who

needed to be placed in re straints.  Con sis -

tently and with no ex tra ne ous di a logue. 

(Even the so cial work ers were not al -

lowed to spend too much time with their

kids–they ar ranged home passes and

wrote progress reports.)

So.  BSS’s were sim ply score-keep ers

and en forc ers, often phys i cally so.  There

were a few who seemed to take some

sat is fac tion in fill ing this role.  And there

were many who did not.  And the rec og -

ni tion for these dur ing their week of

cel e bra tion ... well, we all sure did eat

good!  

CYC week, for CYC’s who are truly

ap pre ci ated, it is just icing on the cake. 

For those who are not al lowed to con trib -

ute to their po ten tial and who are not

rec og nized for what they do ... It’s just an

ex er cise to make ev ery one else feel good.  

And maybe to eat well.

The other ben e fit of CYC week, when

CYC’s can pull it off, is to high light their

po ten tial  and  their  con tri bu tions.    That

could not hap pen on DNP.  I sin cerely

hope it can hap pen else where.

Just my opin ion based on my ob ser va -

tions of one pro gram.  (I also worked in

an other pro gram that did not cel e brate a

CYC week.  But they did not have to. 

They  rou tinely  rec og nized  the  con tri bu -

tions of their CYC workers.)

Nev er the less,  CYC  work ers  are  in deed 

the most es sen tial com po nent of any res i -

den tial pro gram. Even on DNP I

oc ca sion ally no ticed staff who had re la -

tion ships with chil dren and who used

those re la tion ships to help chil dren get

through the strict be hav ioural ‘mi lieu.’  No 

one can be sure, but I sus pect those staff

had at least as much to do with the im -

prove ment of those chil dren who did

im prove as did the team of be hav ioural

psy chol o gists.  And for the few children

who did not improve ...

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CYC-Online July 2011  /  Issue 149

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W

 hen I met Juan in 1989, he was

16 and clas si fied by the Miami

po lice  de part ment  as  a  se ri ous

ha bit ual  ju ve nile  of fender.  Juan’s  his tory

with  fam ily  and  in sti tu tions  in cluded  being

aban doned by his mother shortly after his

fifth birth day, ex pelled from the Dade

County schools at age II, in jured in a gang

fight that left him phys i cally dis abled by

the time he was 12, and re jected by most

so cial ser vice agen cies due to his re peat

of fender sta tus. I was work ing in Miami at

the time with fed eral SHOCAP (Se ri ous

Ha bit ual  Of fender  Com pre hen sive  Ac tion

Pro gram), and Juan was con sid ered by his

pro ba tion  of fi cer  to  be  a  per fect  can di date 

for  in ter agency  mon i tor ing  under  the  pro -

gram. My first task was to de ter mine

Juan’s  el i gi bil ity  by  in ter view ing  him  and

the pro fes sion als who had worked with

him over the years. With each in ter view, it 

be came clearer that Juan had be come in -

creas ingly  dis rup tive  and  an ti so cial  as  he

pro gressed from child hood through ad o -

les cence. Juan con firmed these re ports by

ad mit ting that as he got older, he in volved

him self in more se ri ous acts of ag gres sion

against fam ily, friends, class mates, and

adults.

Prompted by a daily jour nal, Juan de -

scribed proudly many events that

con trib uted  to  his  ag gres sion.  Ac cord ing

to Juan, these acts were al most al ways

tied to sig nif i cant events in his life. Some

of these events in volved sep a ra tion like

the day he was sent by his mother to live

with a de spised aunt. Juan re acted to

these prob lems at home by find ing a “fam -

ily” in a neigh bor hood gang, con firm ing

the opin ion of at least one re searcher that

most gang prob lems are homegrown

(Howell, 1998).

Juan also talked about pe ri ods of tran si -

tion from one exclusionary pro gram to

an other,  usu ally  in volv ing  schools,  dur ing

which he would re spond with overtly ag -

gres sive  acts  in clud ing  at tacks  on

class mates. And ac cord ing Juan’s jour nal,

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CYC-Online July 2011  /  Issue 149

Reprise

youth development

De vel op men tal  Path ways  as

Rites of Pas sage

Ron Garrison

Youth often use significant events in their lives as developmental pathways or "rites of passage"

to serious antisocial behaviors. A youth’s progression along these pathways can be arrested and

even reversed through positive rites of passage that are guided and supported by prosocial adults.

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