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Miller, Jerome G. (1931–)
Jerome G. Miller is recognized as one of the nation's leading authorities on corrections, alternative programs, and clinical work with violent juvenile and adult offenders. Dr. Miller has a Ph.D. in Psychiatric Social Work and has taught at Ohio State University. He has held positions as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services, Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and Commissioner of Children and Youth for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
From 1989 to 1994, Dr. Miller was Jail and Prison Monitor for the United States Court in the Middle District of Florida. In October of 1995, Dr. Miller was appointed by the federal court to be “Receiver” of the District of Columbia's Child Welfare System. He is also Former President and Cofounder of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives and Clinical Director of the Augustus Institute in Alexandria, Virginia. The center develops innovative criminal justice programs and services in response to institutional overcrowding and assists in creating sentencing alternatives to imprisonment.
The Massachusetts Experiment
Jerome Miller is best known for reforming the juvenile correctional system in Massachusetts. He was appointed the first Commissioner of Youth Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1969. In his first two years in that position, he initiated a number of reform measures in an effort to provide more humane treatment for the young persons in his department's care. From 1969 to 1972, Miller closed the state reform schools and placed the residents in community programs. The results of his actions were the release of 95 percent of the 1,200 youth from secure facilities to community-based contractors or an outright release.
Although Commissioner Miller was forced from office by the legislature, his legacy remains intact. There was no resulting juvenile crime wave. Today Massachusetts has roughly 200 secure beds, and the Department of Youth Services places more than 80 percent of juveniles in small, staff-secured programs operated by private, nonprofit agencies. Massachusetts continues to have one of the lowest rates of juvenile crime in the United States.
Other Achievements
Dr. Miller is an advocate for developing therapeutic treatment alternatives in a noninstitutionalized setting for many juvenile and adult offenders. He strongly believes that community-based treatment programs provide a better and less expensive alternative to institutionalization with a reduction in future criminality.
His books include Last One Over the Wall: The Massachusetts Experiment in Closing Reform Schools (1991), which chronicles his experiences as the administrator of the Massachusetts Juvenile Correctional System. That book was the winner of the Edward Sagarin Prize from the American Society of Criminology. Another book, Search and Destroy: African-American Males in the Criminal Justice System (1996), systematically analyzes and critiques the overrepresentation of black males in the criminal justice system. Dr. Miller continues to work for the betterment of juvenile corrections and the juvenile justice system.
- juveniles
- millers
- Massachusetts
- youth services
- adult offenders
- juvenile crime
- juvenile delinquency
Bibliography
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- Delinquency Theories and Theorists
- Albert Cohen
- Biological Theories
- Clifford Shaw
- Cycle of Violence
- Edwin Sutherland
- Fredrick Thrasher
- Henry McKay
- James Short
- Joan McCord
- Lamar T. Empey
- Lloyd Ohlin
- Marvin Wolfgang
- Psychological Theories
- Richard Cloward
- Ruth Shonle Cavan
- Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck
- Sociological Theories
- Solomon Kobrin
- Stanley G. Hall
- Thorsten Sellin
- Travis Hirschi
- Walter Miller
- Walter Reckless
- Historical References: People and Projects
- Delinquent Behavior
- Treatment and Interventions for Delinquency
- Aftercare
- Alternative Schools
- Assessment
- Boot Camps
- Boys and girls Clubs
- community action boards
- Culturally Specific Programming
- curfews
- DARE
- Detention Facilities
- family therapy
- Group Homes
- group therapy
- mediation
- out of home placement
- police responses to delinquency
- Prevention strategies
- probation
- Scared Straight
- Teen courts
- victim offender
- Wilderness Programs
- Juvenile Law and Legislative Initiatives
- California Street Terrorism Enforcement & Prevention
- California Youth Authority
- Death Penalty
- Diversion
- Foster Care
- Guardian Ad Litem
- Juvenile Courts
- Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act
- Juvenile Law
- National Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges
- National Council on Crime & Delinquency
- Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
- parens patriae
- Parental liability laws
- Waivers to Adult Court
- Juvenile Issues and Public Policy
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