AUGUSTA, GA (WFXG) -
After three news conferences this week
regarding management negligence and juvenile behavior at Augusta's Youth
Development Campus, FOX54 spoke to a local professor and researcher about how to
effectively handle juvenile offenders.
Augusta State University professor Dr. Kathy
Hogan has a background in education and criminal justice and completed most of
her research inside a correctional facility like that of Augusta's YDC.
"I think you first and foremost
need to get to know the student, we all make mistakes. Not all the students are
in the juvenile system because of things maybe they wanted to do," said
Dr. Hogan.
Recent reports of youth-on-youth
assaults and the firing of YDC staff indicate a lack of cooperation between
students and staff.
Dr. Hogan's message to teachers working
with these types of students is to approach with a little compassion.
"They [students] already have that tattoo
on their head that says ‘Hello, I'm a bad person, I'm a bad student.' I think
we really need to overcome that and work with the student and let them know
that they can be successful," said Dr. Hogan.
Her main area of concern is the
disconnection between the juvenile systems and the public schools. For those students
who eventually leave correctional facilities, the professor has a vision for
their future by incorporating schools and the juvenile system in that process.
"Develop some type of program where
we can have all entities come together so that when a child is released, the
public schools are notified and then we can have everything connected for the
child to be more successful," said Dr. Hogan. "Because what's happening is they
are leaving those correctional facilities and they get into the schools and
they're lost."
Regardless
of whether a child is in a correctional facility or coming out to public
schools, Dr. Hogan hopes to be a part of that process very soon.
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