Probation

I went to a fascinating meeting the other day in Jerusalem. With several leaders I went to the Juvenile Probation Service (JPS) in the Ministry of Social Affairs. In most countries, probation services are run by the police or courts. But in Israel, the social side is the emphasis. Israel has 240 probation officers, and there are 16,000 new referrals every year ... for 23,000 offenses. JPS is actually one of the oldest social services in Israel - it was set up in 1934 during the British mandate.

My colleagues at the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute have been helping the JPS with empirical data. The Institute profiled the kids, the process, the programs. How do you know when the process is effective? When are the kids deemed 'rehabilitated?'

We met with A., a high-risk young offender. He agreed to join a 'wraparound' program - an intensive case-management process to get him back on track without removing him from the community. "He was lost," his father said. "He didn't know what to do with his life ....now he's learned his risk factors, responsibility, sensibility."

The challenge is how do we help these kind of social services get the most impact with stretched-thin resources. There are complex family and personal backgrounds, dangerous behaviors. And it's not all drug- or violence-related. 40% of the offenses are violent, 20% are property crimes. Only 10% are drug crimes, and 2% are sex-related crimes. So you need facts, knowledge, impact-studies.

I'm proud of my colleagues in Myers-JDC-Brookdale. They are making a major change in how JPS measures outcomes, develops tools to track treatment and understands young offenders. And these kinds of applied research programs make a real impact in people's lives.


If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email, sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

What we need is to be normal

 I spent a few fascinating hours yesterday in Lod.

Lod is unique, because it has a 6000-year history. It’s one of the oldest cities in the world. There are layers and layers of history and depth when you walk through its streets and sights.

And yet …

The city is filled with negative forces – drugs, crime, neglect, weapons, prostitution. The army’s Border Patrol (not the police) has been called in to fight gang warfare, and until recently the city didn't even have an elected mayor. It’s usually seen as the drug- and crime-capital of Israel. It’s a dangerous and unpleasant place, in some areas.

So young people leave as soon as they can. And you have a negative spiral, with the weak and vulnerable pulling the socioeconomics even further down. One-third of the population of Lod is treated by welfare authorities.

There’s no cinema (in a city of 75,000 people).

There’s no cultural life.

There's only one café (just opened last month; it’s not very good. The food is awful and the service is worse).

I was walking with some friends and colleagues around the city and we saw a group of Polish tourists come visit the Church and Mosque of St. George. “They come to see the holy site, maybe buy some holy water, then they get back on the bus,” said my colleague Lior, Director of our new Center for Young Adults. “There’s nothing else for them to do here. Living here is a sacrifice. What we need is to be normal: tourism, trade, personal security.”

Lior and his team were interviewing new candidates two weeks ago for the new Center for Young Adults. One of the candidates, a young and promising woman with a good resume, called from the parking lot. She refused to come in to the interview because she was too afraid to leave her car and come across the lot. 

That’s the challenge we’re facing there.