Glen Mills Schools
Glen Mills Schools (also: Glenn Mills School) is an American facility for the accommodation and rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents near Philadelphia ; the village of Glen Mills belongs to Delaware County in the state of Pennsylvania .
history
In 1826 the Philadelphia House of Refuge was built. Since 1911 the closed facility has been called Glen Mills Schools .
In 1975 Cosimo D. Ferrainola took over the home, which mainly housed young people between the ages of 13 and 18 who had committed criminal offenses, mostly of African American origin. He developed a new concept with socio-educational, psychological-group-dynamic, work-related and sporting elements. He had the fence removed, but emphasized to the judiciary that it was still a closed facility. The escape rate was low; in 1979, for example, there was only one case. Ferrainola expanded the home from 90 to almost 1000 places in 2007.
From 2007 to 2012 Garry Ipock managed the home. Randy A. Ireson has headed the facility since 2013.
concept
The concept is geared towards group dynamics. Two group meetings take place every day. Learning takes place in connection with practical work and projects. There are teachers, educators and in the workshops there are vocational school teachers.
The students are given regular personal performance and behavioral feedback via monthly individual case reports, quarterly success summaries and legally binding reports per accounting year. The evaluation of the work shows large, extensive success rates.
GGI , Group Guided Interaction, is a concept invented and implemented there that uses group pressure pedagogically. Glen Mills has four other specialty programs to reduce relapse rates , they are:
- Moral Reconation Therapy
- MRT companion programming
- Coping with Anger and Parenting
- Family Values and Botvin LifeSkills Training.
costs
In 2011, a seat cost about $ 3,800 a month. This includes: inpatient placement of children, use of daytime treatment facilities and preparation for annual audits .
Professional careers
In the houses work consultants ( counselors ) who learns the GGI for a socio-educational, psychological or teacher training. Work is carried out in a 3-shift system from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., then until 11:30 p.m., followed by night shifts. Additionally trained vocational school teachers work in the workshops or in the school.
Scientific support
In the five years after 1977, New York Columbia University Professor of Education Howard W. Polsky accompanied the institution, influenced the conception and worked on the evaluation of the effects ; he is known for his "diamond", a description of typical gang hierarchies .
"Student Union"
Many of the young people work in self-administration and hospitality areas, look after their fellow students' free time and run two cafeterias.
Sports
Sport is part of the pedagogical concept, since even difficult young people can achieve success here. The following sports are practiced:
- Football, cross country, golf, soccer, basketball
- Wrestling, indoor track, powerlifting, swimming, bowling
- Baseball, volleyball, roller hockey, outdoor track & field
- Tennis, powerlifting and cycling
Sport allows difficult young people to experience success. In football in particular , the students at Glen Mills Schools achieved great results and were allowed to compete in regular leagues. In the past 30 years they have won 18 national championships. The respective team is called "Battling Bulls", which is a synonym for an elite group of those young people who have already sufficiently adopted the standards of the house and are ready to pass them on to younger and new fellow students. Sport therefore forms the character, the personality and is an integral part of the house concept.
Reception in Germany
The facility was discovered by Günther in 1979 and first described in a German-language specialist article in 1981. Glen Mills was later associated with boot camps in Europe . The pronounced group pressure is too inhuman and uneducational for Western European standards. The DJI documented the debate.
literature
- German Youth Institute: The Glen Mills Schools, Pennsylvania, USA. A model between school, child and youth welfare and justice? An expertise. Verlag DJI, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-935701-10-1 .
- CD Ferrainola: On the need for an effective change in inpatient treatment models for delinquent adolescents. In: DVJJ-Journal. 165, 1999.
- Rene Grummt, Peter Schruth, Titus Simon: New fetters of youth welfare: Repressive pedagogy. Schneider, Hohengehren 2010, ISBN 978-3-8340-0677-6 .
- Petra Guder: Glen Mills - American Myth or Real Opportunity? In: DVJJ-Journal. 165, 1999.
- Manfred Günther: Alternative concepts for 'not schoolable' and delinquent young people in the USA. In: Social Pedagogy. 23 1981.
- Howard W. Polsky: Cottage Six. New York 1977.
- Claus Otto Ottmüller : Glen Mills Schools - A model of juvenile criminal justice in the USA. Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1988.
- Dagmar Vieten-Groß: Glen Mills Schools - An alternative to prison for delinquent youth in America? In: DVJJ-Journal. 156, 1997.
- Jens Weidner: Analysis of the treatment concept of the Glen Mills Schools facility ... (diploma thesis at Colla, Lüneburg) unpublished, 1986.
- Jens Weidner, Rainer Kilb, Dieter Kreft (eds.): Violence under control. Weinheim 1997, ISBN 3-407-55799-X .
Web links
- Official homepage of the institution
- IFK Potsdam: Conference documentation on Glen Mills
- Website of the German Glen Mills Academy
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. "Literature" Günther 1981
- ↑ cf. "Literature" Günther 1981
- ↑ DVJJ 2002: Glen Mills Schools ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Expertise of the DJI online; seen on November 5, 2011 ( memento of the original from August 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.1 MB)
