Getting into Place/Gaining Acceptance and Trust

Abstract

This study is based on ethnographic research I conducted at a co-ed county juvenile justice institution in a large city. Although this institution was a lockdown facility consisting of 60 residents, it attempted to encompass group home living by dividing the residents into bungalows comprising groups of 10. This is one of a handful of institutions to which youth may be sentenced after spending time in juvenile hall and being charged with a minor offense. However, this was the only lockdown institution that included therapeutic practices as part of the rehabilitation program. Although the institution is co-ed, the girls and boys are kept separate from each other with the exception of time spent in the classroom and time spent during recreational activities. The only gender-integrated sphere within this institution was the school, where the residents attended regularly scheduled classes in working toward high school graduation. Although there was a school on the premises, the school seemed to be peripheral to the institution’s merit program. Neither school nor education is mentioned in any of the expectations at each of the levels of the tiered merit-ladder system, and actions that occurred in school were not considered in the evaluation system calculating daily points for each girl.