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Swift River AcademyThe Academy at Swift River The Academy at Swift River is a private college preparatory therapeutic boarding school which fosters personal growth and healthy self-expression in adolescents, inspires academic excellence, and teaches individual responsibility and service to others. Swift River specializes in educating troubled teens struggling with behavior, emotional issues, or academics. Students at Swift River boarding school are challenged on a daily basis to raise their standards of academic and personal growth.

Missouri Reforms Its Reform Schools to a More Effective Therapeutic Model

The state of Missouri changed its juvenile prison system into a new, more effective model that looks something like a series of therapeutic boarding schools.

Juvenile offenders, formerly housed in 6x9 cells, now live in small group homes, attend family and individual therapy, work toward degrees in small class sizes, and receive outpatient therapy when they go home. Many undergo drug or alcohol treatment programs. They often do therapeutic work in peer groups, where they open up about their pasts, family traumas, and other problems. If they adhere to rules, they receive rewards in the form of visits home, field trips, and other freedoms.

Missouri's "gladiator prisons" now look more like college dorms, although the level of security is still high. The new arrangements allow teens to have some privacy and space for the first time in the system's history. Juveniles now live in small groups of ten or so, and attend classes together, have communal meals, play sports, etc. The ratio of staff to juveniles is low: about one to five.

The results of the new approach are impressive.

In 2006, only 7% of Missouri teens who finished the therapeutic program were in adult prisons within three years. This compares to 75% in New York and California. No Missouri teens have committed suicide since the overhaul of the system. Nationally, more than 25 teens within juvenile systems kill themselves every year.

"This isn't rocket science," said Mark Steward, director of Missouri's Division of Youth Services. "It's about giving young people structure, love and attention, and not allowing them to hurt themselves or other people. Pretty basic stuff, really."

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