This would entail arrangement such as halfway houses that would allow the offenders to leave the reform schools and go back into their communities (Lyons 2006). This type of system can be risky because delinquents can reoffend and the blame would be on the system that returned them to the community. However, Miller tried this approach with the creation of the Hyde Park House. Miller explains "From the beginning, Hyde Park House fit the bill. We could have our cake and eat it, doling out control as therapy and psychological assault as discipline. What's more, we could not have been accused of permissiveness. (the Hyde Park model is the one in vogue throughout the United States today for treating adolescents involved in drugs.) Youngsters were expected to conform themselves to authority at all times, to lay out their problems, to assume responsibility for their own actions, and to disown whatever excuses they might have found in their back grounds. House government and group therapy sessions were held a number of times a day. There were chores to do, individual tutoring, and a consultant psychiatrist (Miller)." Chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17 all round out the section on alternative systems. In these chapters the authors focuses on the Myth of "Violent" Teenagers, Side Effects: The County Training Schools, Backlash and Results: After Almost All Is Said and Done. In these chapters Miller argues several points as it pertains to alternative systems. In the 14th chapter of the section he explains that many teenagers that are labeled violent do not display violence unless they are placed in certain environments. Additionally, the author asserts that there were some negative situations associated with the county schools. The author reflects on the fact that the county schools were inadequate particularly in comparison to the reform schools that had undergone a great deal of change in recent years. The author explains that part of the problem with the county training schools is that they did not necessarily hold true delinquents. As a result...

The author also focuses on the backlash that was faced as a result of the alternative systems. He explains that there was initial support for some of the alternative programs but in other instances there was a great deal of backlash that Miller had to deal with. Finally Miller focuses on the results of implementing an alternative system. The book explains that the main concern was recidivism (the tendency to relapse) amongst those that had been placed in alternative systems ("Recidivism"). Miller does report that there was a reduction in the number of young people returning to the system. He explains that "as the community programs stabilized, more signs reinforced the early conclusions of Ohlin, Coates, and Miller. Between 1978 and 1988, there was a dramatic drop in the number of youth appearing in Massachusetts juvenile courts. Arraignments fell 34%, from 28,000 to 18,000 (Miller)."
The final section of the book contains Chapters 18 and 19 and focuses on Criminals and Criminologists. In these chapters the author discusses the role of defenders and the insight of those that are supposed them play in the reforming of the juvenile justice system. He explains that the diagnosis of criminals and criminal behavior had become obsolete in the context of the juvenile justice system in Massachusetts. He asserts that better mechanism should be put in place to guarantee that the psychology of offenders is better understood. He also explains the ways in which politics and politicians inhibit the reforms that need to take place in order to make the system better.

References

Lyons, John S. McCulloch, Romansky, Jill (2006) Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 45 (2) - pp 247-251

Miller. John G. (1991). Last One Over the Hill: The Massachusetts Experiment in Closing Reform Schools.

recidivism. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online…