A Halfway-House Program for Delinquents

Abstract

State-administered halfway houses for delinquents were estab lished in Michigan at a time when comprehensive policy changes encouraged experiments and research in rehabilitation, includ ing a search for alternatives to training-school placement. First developed in June 1964, they have served as learning laboratories in the supervision of delinquents in an open setting. They are destroying the myth that all delinquent boys can learn better self-controls only in partly closed, highly supervised settings. In the halfway-house system of supportive-type controls, boys have a chance to function in a normal community and learn to make those decisions that establish crime-free behavior patterns.