This research practicum is an outcome study of the Specialized Out-of-Home Care project (S.O.H.C.). The project, administered by the Oregon Children's Services Division, was designed to provide alternative care resources to specifically meet the needs of Portland's juvenile target offenders, who required out-of-home care. The juvenile offenders accepted into the S.O.H.C. project were between the ages of ten to eighteen, and had been adjudicated for target ctimes. The S.O.H.C. project was federally funded for a twenty-nine month period beginning on May 1, 1974 and extends through September of 1976. This study will include only the clients referred and placed during a one-year period, from July 1, 1974 to June 31, 1975. Additional "up-date" information was collected in October of 1975. A variety of alternative care resources were utilized as placements for the client population. Clients were placed in foster families, group homes, day-care settings and residential centers. This practicum was undertaken as a cooperative effort by four M.S.W. students, of Portland State University's School of Social Work, working conjointly with the S.O.H.C.'s project staff in the over-all evaluation of the project. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact that services provided by the S.O.H.C. project have had on the target population of juvenile offenders.

Concerned by the increase in the average daily populations at Maclaren School for Boys and Hillcrest School for Girls, Children's Services Division has requested research related to children who have been released from child care centers and private institutions. Child care centers were originally developed as alternatives to the state institutions. As children were diverted to various child care centers, the populations of these two institutions decreased, and plans were made to merge the two schools, thus closing Hillcrest. With the increase in populations at both schools, this is no longer feasible. As much time and effort is spent in placing children outside of the state schools, C.S.D. would like to have some measure of how effectively its workers are diverting children from the correctional system. A speculation exists among many C.S.D. workers that youngsters are not staying in these child care centers long enough to benefit from the varied programs the centers offer. With these factors in mind, a research design was developed which would cover these variables: 1. The child's placement 2. His length of stay (including dates of placement and release) 3. His disposition upon release 4. His living situation one year following his release

When juveniles are defined by society as delinquent they are frequently institutionalized. These institutions are referred to as reform schools, correctional institutions or schools, residential care facilities, treatment centers, or variations of the above. They are state sponsored or privately sponsored. Whatever name is on the sign by the front door, each institution is in the business of "people changing." The excellence of an inanimate product can be measured, weighed, checked, and reproduced; but an altered person is more difficult to measure. If one is in the business of people-changing, it seems important to see if one is in fact changing people. This study of post institutional adjustment in one privately sponsored girl's residential care facility is an attempt to look at change in a group of released girls measured in the scale devised by the study group).

Multnomah County, Oregon, like many other counties across the nation, faces the perplexing problem of meeting the needs of the youthful offender. Historically, and even in more recent times, juvenile court authorities have relied primarily on detention facilities to provide secure custody for youthful offenders. However, the continued increase in delinquency and a growing storm of criticism of the juvenile court have led to a re-examination of current policy and a number of proposed changes on both the national and local level. A policy change in Multnomah County with regard to detention of youthful offenders has led to the closure of some of the detention facilities at the Donald E. Long Home. The policy change was also responsible for the creation of an alternative program for the young offender. The policy change was also responsible for the creation of an alternative program for the young offender. The alternative program called the Close Supervision Program was based on the philosophy that many of the youths held in detention do not require secure custody in the county’s detention home while awaiting adjudication. The authors surveyed the literature to examine the delinquency problem in the light of “casual” factors, labeling and stigma, treatment, institionalization and alternatives to detention. This theoretical framework is provided in order to give meaning to the conceptualization of delinquency and the need for alternative programs.