On Good Authority

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Juvenile sex offender
treatment program provides
residential, aftercare services
On Good Authority
Vol. 4, No. 9
June 2001
On Good Authority is a periodic
briefing on trends and issues in criminal
justice program evaluation. This report
was written by staff Research Analyst
Megan Alderden. It is a summary of the
final evaluation of the Illinois
Department of Corrections’ Juvenile
Sex Offender Treatment Program. The
evaluation was conducted by Cindy
Smith, Ph.D., and Kimberly Craig, M.A.,
of the University of Baltimore, and
Barbara Hayler, Ph.D, of the University
of Illinois at Springfield. Copies of the
evaluation are available from the
Authority’s Research and Analysis Unit.
The Illinois Criminal Justice
Information Authority is a state
agency dedicated to improving the
administration of criminal justice in
Illinois. The basic functions of the
Authority are criminal justice research,
federal and state grants administration,
and information systems development
and support.
For more information, or for copies of
this or other publications, contact the
Authority at (312) 793-8550, or visit
our Web site at www.icjia.state.il.us.
The evaluation was supported by grant #96-DB-MU-
0017 and 97-DB-MU-0017 awarded by
the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice
Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of
view in this document do not necessarily
represent the official position or policies of the
U.S. Department of Justice.
Printed by authority of the State of Illinois, June
2001. Printing order #01-356; 3,000 copies.
George H. Ryan
Governor
Peter B. Bensinger
Chairman
Candice M. Kane
Executive Director
ILLINOIS
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
INFORMATION AUTHORITY
Little is known about juvenile sex
offenders, the risk they pose in the
community, and the treatment
needed to reduce recidivism. Although
only about 7 percent of juveniles in the
Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC)
are identified juvenile sex offenders, they
often receive a large amount of media
attention, stimulating safety concerns in
the community. While these offenders
represent a small proportion of offenders
committed to IDOC, recent legislative
changes expanding juvenile sentencing
and civil commitment options require the
provision of a high volume of correctional
resources for juveniles who reoffend.
To expand and refine services to
incarcerated juvenile sex offenders, the
Illinois Criminal Justice Information
Authority, using Federal Anti-Drug
Abuse Act funds, awarded a grant to the
IDOC Youth Division to develop a
specialized program for juvenile sex
offenders. The Sex Offender Treatment
Program at the Illinois Youth Center at
Harrisburg (IYC-H) includes two compo-nents:
the Sex Offender Treatment Unit
(SOTU), a residential treatment unit
located in a separate wing of the Harris-burg
facility; and the Sex Offender Unit
(SOU), an aftercare component for sex
offenders who eventually are paroled to
Cook County.
To aid program development and
implementation, the Authority funded a
two-year implementation and impact
evaluation of the Sex Offender Treatment
Program. This On Good Authority reports
the findings from the second year
evaluation focusing on the continuing
implementation of the sex offender
program, the process evaluation and
preliminary outcome data. Interim report
findings from the first year of implementa-tion
were published in On Good Author-ity,
Vol. 1, No. 6 , June 1998, “Sex offender
treatment at the Illinois Youth Center-
Harrisburg.”
Program background
Prior to the 1996 implementation of the
Sex Offender Treatment Program, many
juveniles in need of sex offender treat-ment
were sent to the Illinois Youth
Center at Valley View, where they received
a combination of group and individual
counseling and treatment. Other youth
center facilities across Illinois also
reported serving these youths with group
or individual counseling, although none
of these facilities operated a recognized
treatment program for juvenile sex
offenders.
The SOTU component of the Sex
Offender Treatment Program is housed in
the Harrisburg facility and includes two
residential wings that operate as a
therapeutic environment. Wing L was first
opened in September 1996. The opening
of the second wing, Wing K, was delayed
until October 1997 due to a change in
program director during the first year of
implementation.
Although both wings engaged in the
same type of treatment, differences in the
selection process used during the first