A regular Source feature, Undercurrents explores issues, ideas and events as they develop beneath the surface in the Virgin Islands community.
Maybe it starts when he’s in elementary school. He can’t seem to get along with the other kids; if there is a scuffle, he’ll be in the middle of it. Then he starts skipping school, talking back to the teacher, giving serious attitude on the school bus. By junior high, he’s caught with marijuana. In high school, he starts staying out all night or disappearing for a day or two at a time.
By the time his mother meets with Vaughn Walwyn and Marcia Gordon, she’s completely out of ideas, if not out of patience.
As district manager for the Division of Juvenile Justice at the Department of Human Services, Walwyn oversees several internal programs aimed at helping people get safely out of adolescence and into a productive adulthood.
Walwyn also is the liaison for a privately managed program called JWrap. The J is for juvenile, and Wrap is for the approach: a blanket of services designed to support and nurture troubled youth while challenging them to take responsibility for their own behavior and, ultimately, for their own lives.
JWrap is operated by Virgin Islands Behavioral Services, a company affiliated with United Health Services. Gordon is the clinical program manager and head of a small staff of professionals who hold degrees in social science.
The program serves both youth who have been adjudicated for criminal behavior (classified as “delinquent”) and those traveling in the direction of the court system (“pre-delinquent.”)
Truancy, gateway drug use, risky sexual behavior, and disrespectful and/or aggressive behavior are some of the more common signs that a teen is at-risk, Gordon and Walwyn agreed.
In general, participants are between the ages of 12 and 17, though there are occasional special cases of older or younger clients.
A delinquent client is sent to JWrap by a judge who believes the youth may benefit more from intervention than detention. Participation is mandatory and the judge receives regular updates.
Pre-delinquent youth may be referred through a variety of ways, including by a school counselor or a concerned family member. Participation is not automatic, however. The intake division of Human Services assesses each case and determines whether to send the youth to JWrap.
Persons involved in violent behavior employing a weapon are not eligible for the program, Gordon said. Nor is JWrap capable of serving youth with severe cognitive disabilities.
“It’s a holistic program” that involves family counseling as well as sessions for the young client, Gordon said.
“We’ve had parents say: ‘Fix them. I’m not the problem,’” she said. But that won’t work.
Even if the parents don’t live together, Gordon said she tries to get both of them – and in fact the entire family – involved in the intervention.
The client and the JWrap staff sign a contract at the start of a program; the teen agrees to abide by certain rules and the staff agrees to provide certain services.
“We tell the clients, ‘It’s not punishment. It’s to help you,’” Gordon said.
Group sessions are limited to eight participants at a time and run once a week for several weeks. Topics cover life skills, such as résumé writing and how to make out a check; anger management techniques; substance abuse; and human sexuality.
The sexuality course covers human biology, sexually transmitted diseases, negotiation skills and birth control.
Gordon said there are “a lot of things they think they know that they don’t know.”
Another group topic covers law and victim awareness. Basically it’s a lesson in responsibility and consequences. It gives clients an overview of the Justice system and an introduction to the Bureau of Corrections, providing a taste of what it’s like to be incarcerated. They also get an idea of how antisocial and/or criminal behavior affects its victims.
The timing of group sessions is staggered so a client may complete one topic and then another.
Clients must be home by 6 p.m. nightly unless they get special permission to be out later and when they are attending JWrap group sessions. Staff actually escort them home after sessions.
“You have to see an adult” in the home before dropping off a client, Walwyn said.
Curfew is so strict that clients must call JWrap to report in by 6 p.m. each night, unless that rule is eased for good behavior.
They are also required to take monthly drug tests.
“If you refuse a test, it’s counted as a positive,” Walwyn said. He and Gordon said almost all of the JWrap clients are marijuana users when they enter the program.
The length of JWRAP participation varies according to need. General guidelines call for three to six months for a “Level One” pre-delinquent client; six to nine months for a Level Two; and nine months to a year for an adjudicated delinquent. Those can be adjusted depending on the case.
“We give them incentives and we give them sanctions” to ensure cooperation and compliance, Gordon said.
Sanctions range anywhere from a verbal reprimand to the assignment of tasks such as washing cars or writing an essay. Incentives start with simple praise, loosening curfew reporting requirements and going on special outings.
“I find a lot of the time it’s peer pressure” that has sidetracked a child, Gordon said. “And often they are not taught how to deal with anger.”
Walwyn added, “We have to teach them how to say ‘No,’ how to step away … We have to teach them slick ways” of avoiding confrontations, such as employing humor.
Often, he said, a client’s demeanor is totally different in a group than it is in an individual setting: With a peer group, there’s aggression to try to demonstrate strength; one on one, there can be tears.
Confidentiality is the program watch word. Gordon said even the clients don’t know one another’s full stories. The court and parents are kept abreast of progress but case workers don’t breach confidences.
JWrap has served a total of 147 clients since it began four years ago, Gordon said. It’s similar to a Law Enforcement Planning Commission program called Juvenile Intensive Support Services, although JISS serves only delinquent individuals, not pre-delinquent adolescents.
When LEPC stopped funding JISS in 1995, the local government picked it up, but only on St. Croix. JWrap started on St. Thomas in September 2010.
