Administrative Units
Behavioral Services Unit
Behavioral Services Unit
The Behavioral Service Unit (BSU) is the organizational treatment arm of the Juvenile Correctional Centers (JCC’s). BSU is responsible for directing and providing relevant clinical services to the youth housed at the Reception and Diagnostic Center and the six juvenile correctional centers. The primary services provided by the BSU staff included mental health, substance abuse and sex offender treatment. In addition, BSU oversees the implementation of anger management services.
Organizational Structure
BSU is a legislatively mandated organizational unit within the Department of Juvenile Justice to provide assessment and treatment to incarcerated youth. All supervisory staff within the unit are licensed professionals within their respective fields. There are 3 BSU staff located in the Central Office: the Psychology Director who serves as the chief administrator of the unit, the Program Manager for Substance Abuse Services and the Program Manger for Sex Offender Services. All of the juvenile correctional centers except for Oak Ridge have a supervisory psychologist on site who is responsible for the clinical treatment services at that facility. The BSU staff at Oak Ridge JCC report to the Treatment Director at Bon Air JCC.
In addition to the supervisory clinicians, BSU employs doctoral and masters level psychologists, clinical social workers, certified substance abuse counselors, psychological test technicians and clerical staff. Currently the 95 BSU positions are distributed across the seven facilities based on the number of youth and services offered at each facility. BSU strongly supports the recruitment and retention of licensed staff and encourages existing staff to pursue licensing. All staff are required to get certifications in their respective practice (e.g., Sex Offender Treatment Provider).
Psychiatric services are provided through a memorandum of agreement with the Medical College of Virginia and with contracts with individual board certified psychiatrists from the private sector.
Services
Mental Health Treatment
The following services are provided at each of the facilities; individual, group and family therapy, crisis intervention services, psychological assessment, case consultation, psychiatric services and psychotropic medication management, suicide assessment and intervention, development and implementation of behavioral protocols for suicidal and self-injurious youth, 24/7 on-call services and relevant staff training in treatment issues.
Substance Abuse Treatment
Substance abuse treatment services are currently provided within a two tiered approach. The first tier is psycho educational services. These services consist of sixteen sessions of didactic and experiential groups. These groups generally meet twice per week. The second tier of substance abuse treatment services is therapy process groups. These groups consist of more detailed objectives to be completed by the youth and presented to their group. This group is not time limited; movement through the program to completion is based on successful completion of each objective. Each youth is encouraged to work on and present each of their objectives in a timely manner. Generally, each objective can be completed within a month.
An ancillary service which consists of a relapse prevention curriculum is also available. This curriculum takes the process a step further and is available for those youth who have an extended length of stay, wish to continue with clinical services, and could benefit from additional treatment services. This group focuses on issues relating to relapse prevention, recovery, recidivism, problem solving, and criminal and addictive thinking. It is designed to be an eight session curriculum.
On average, 70% of youth committed to the Department receive a mandatory or recommended substance abuse treatment designation. During assessment at the Reception and Diagnostic Center, youth are evaluated as to the severity of their substance use, and from this evaluation, treatment level determinations can be made at each facility. Youth are then placed in substance abuse treatment services based on the severity of treatment need.
Sex Offender Treatment
The Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) opened its first state-operated juvenile sex offender treatment unit in January 1990. The program has significantly expanded since that time to meet the growing number of sex offenders in the system. The Department currently has 11 self-contained sex offender treatment units across five juvenile correctional centers (JCCs). Beaumont and Culpeper JCCs offer treatment to older juveniles; Hanover and Bon Air JCCs to younger high school and middle school juveniles; and Oakridge JCC to developmentally delayed juveniles of all ages. The overall sex offender program is managed by the Program Supervisor of sex offender services (Edward Wieckowski, MA, CSOTP).
Currently, there are approximately 250 sex offenders in the JCCs. One hundred-seventy of these juveniles are placed in the self-contained units, while the remaining juveniles have completed treatment and are serving the remainder of their incarceration time, or are on the waiting list to enter treatment. There are also a handful of juveniles with minimal sex offending behavior whose treatment needs can be met outside a self-contained unit. The length of time a juvenile remains in the self-contained unit is based on severity of offense and motivation in treatment, and averages 14-18 months.
The self-contained units offer intensive milieu-based treatment where juveniles reside in housing units with other sex offenders. The units offer a range of treatment modalities that include individual and group psychotherapy, psycho-educational groups and family psychotherapy. They are typically staffed by a psychologist senior, clinical social worker, institutional counselor, and juvenile correctional officers (JCOs). The clinical staff at JCCs are either licensed or certified as a sex offender treatment provider (CSOTP).
Juvenile sex offenders are a heterogeneous population, and treatment is individualized by the therapists “Individualized Treatment Plan” protocol. All juveniles work toward 10 general goals by completing a minimum of eight designated core treatment activities, and any necessary individualized treatment activities.