A Reliable
Voice in the
Community

Volume 6
Issue 25
Sept. 2 - 8, 2009

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What’s working: The capital offender program in Texas

By Globe Staff

“From Time Out to Hard Time,” a report published recently by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, explored the harmful effects of youth being tried as adults in many states. The report also highlighted several promising programs serving juvenile offenders as an alternative to adult sentences.

One of those programs is the Capital Offender Program — or COP — Giddings State School in Texas. The Giddings State School is a maximum-security facility run by the state juvenile justice agency, the Texas Youth Commission. Giddings houses many violent juvenile offenders and is well known for its Capital and Serious Violent Offender Treatment Program. COP was first implemented in 1988 as a group treatment program for juveniles who committed homicide.

In order to qualify for the program today, youth must have been at Giddings for at least a year and have at least six months remaining on their sentences; they must be committed for capital murder, murder or voluntary manslaughter; they must be at least 16 years old; and they must not be diagnosed with any mental disorders. The program takes up to five months to complete and runs on a strict 16 hour-a-day schedule that includes therapy, education, vocational and discipline training. Only eight or nine youth are enrolled in the program at a time, with all students living together in a residential dorm.

Therapy sessions are twice a week and students are required to role-play critical events in their upbringing that had a significant impact on their development and juvenile delinquency. The purpose is not to excuse the offending behavior but rather to promote individual responsibility for distorted thinking patterns, which they used to excuse their behavior.

As part of the process they also re-enact the crimes they committed from the perspective of the perpetrator and then the victim. This intense exercise not only promotes a sense of responsibility for the crime committed, it also fosters a sense of empathy for the victim. In addition, youth have shown decreased levels of hostility and aggression.

According to Stan DeGerolami, the superintendent of the school: “Kids do hard time here. They have to face themselves. They have to deal with the events that put them here. They have to examine what they did and take responsibility for it. Kids who go through that do not go out and re-offend. That needs to be screamed out loud: They do not re-offend. The bottom line is public safety, and I can tell you, I’d much rather have a kid who has been through the programs at Giddings move in next to me than I would a kid who was just released from prison.”

The success of the Giddings program is widely known in the juvenile justice community.

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