Transcript KORTRIGHT PROGRAM

Therapeutic Foster Care Program
Development of Catskill Regional Coalition for Sexual
Offender Management.
(CRCSOM)
Who are the members of the Catskill Regional Coalition for Sexual
Offender Management?
Chenango, Delaware , Otsego and Schoharie Counties
An award of $250,000 was given to the
CRCSOM in October 2006. By the U.S Department of Justice,
Office of Justice Assistance, Bureau of Criminal Justice
Assistance (BJA) Grant.
The group initially focused on the juvenile population.
Goals of CRCSOM
1.
Promote victim-center approaches and victim advocacy.
2.
Pre-Sentence specialized sex offender evaluations.
3.
Increase the use of polygraph evaluations and viewing time
measures.
4.
Enhance quality of treatment.
Goals of CRCSOM continued…
5.
Provide professional training, clinical and technical
consultation and community education.
6.
Create one agency-operated therapeutic foster homes for
juvenile sexual offenders in each of the four counties.
7.
Plan for the continuation of CRCSOM and disseminate the
information beyond the four counties.
IMPLEMENTATION PHASE OF
CRCSOM
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Enhance the Understanding of Juvenile Sexual Abusers (Professional Training)
Enhance the Quality and Availability of Juvenile Sexual Abusers Assessment.
Provide Treatment to youth who act out sexually.
Assure all Interventions are consistent with the Best Interest of Victims.
Ensure the Continuation/ Sustainability of the CRCSOM Project
Objective 2: CRCSOM Core Group will create an agency- operated therapeutic foster home
for juvenile sexual offenders.
Plan : The CRCSOM team will prepare to replicated the Kortright Program with the
remaining counties in the CRCSOM catchments area. The Core Group will prepare materials
to share with governmental entities that would like to replicate the community-based form
of foster care.
Kortright Program
Agency Operated Foster Home Model
Mission:
To provide youth who exhibit sexually
inappropriate behavior a safe, structure and
supervised therapeutic home environment while
maintaining them in a community based setting.
Kortright
Program:
This specialized program is referred to as the
Kortright program.
This program helps to provide an array of
community based treatment services to male
adolescents ranging from age from 12-18 years
who have committed sexual offenses or
demonstrated sexually aggressive behaviors.
One of our hopes of the program is that we will
help the youth placed in the program will learn
how to
“court right”!
(Kortright Program).
Is this
Program
Cost
Effective?

This program provides a variety of levels of
services as alternatives to costly inpatient
programs.

This program is the only known community based
Title IV-E Federally eligible model as compared to
other residential treatment program.

The cost is just under $60,000 per child with the
County cost just under $15,000 compared to
residential programs which cost over $130,000 per
child with a minimum County cost of at least
$60,000.

_____ _______ __ _____
____ ___
Cost effective…

We calculate that there is an annual saving of
about $1,000,000 from the reduction of cost of
residential placements by utilizing these many
resources thus making this model sustainable.

Develop a similar foster care program in each of
the four counties of the Catskill Region Coalition
for Sexual Offender Management by 2009.
GOALS:
1. To provide youth with treatment closer to their home and family.
This will allow families and surrogate families to be included as full
participants in all aspects of the delivery of services.
2. To provide outpatient individual, group and family therapy for your
placed in the Kortright Program.
3. To assist families with safety plans to promote healthy family
functioning.
4. To help the child develop self-esteem and age appropriate
independent functioning.
5. To help keep the community safe.
6. To provide a more cost effective model for youth treatment than
residential programming.
Operation of the Home

County owned home or DSS leases the home.

DSS Certifies the Foster Parent(s) and two support staff and one
recreational worker who reside or work in the home. All support staff are
certified as foster parents in the event, the foster parent(s) take a
vacation or break. The home is then covered by a support staff person
who steps into the role of foster parent.

DSS Contracts with a voluntary or community based agency to hire the
foster parent, support staff and one recreational worker that work in the
home.
Operation of the Home continued…

Department responsible for all landlord activities and furnishings in the
home.

One Caseworker and Case B Supervisor assigned to work with the youth
and foster parents in the Kortright Program. Responsible for the youth’s
service plan, maintenance of the foster home. Attend monthly meetings
with involved service providers from Agency Operated Foster Home
program, Mental Health Clinic, Probation Department, DSS
Administration and Forensic Consultant, Dr. Hamill.

DSS Educational Consultant to work with the local school district
regarding the youth’s educational plan.

Independent living skills are provided by the foster parent(s) and support
staff.
Other
Contracts •Contract with County Mental Health Clinic, to provide
two therapists to work with identified youth. One who
attends house meetings on a weekly bases or less
frequently if appropriate. These therapists also provide
individual, family and group treatment for the assigned
youth.
•Contract with Dr. Richard Hamill, PH.D of Forensic
Mental Health Associates. He consults with DSS and
MHC Staff on each of the youth in the Kortright
Program. Additionally, Dr. Hamill attends monthly
meetings to consult on the assigned youth in the
program. He is also available for phone consults as
issues arise.
Type of youth who may be placed in
the Kortright Program.

All youth placed in the Kortright program must be placed in
the local Commissioner’s care and custody.

Only Male adolescents between the ages 12-18 who have
exhibited inappropriate sexual behavior.

Those youth must have been evaluated by either the
specialized therapists at the County Mental Health Clinic or
by the Forensic Mental Health Consultant and recommend
for placement in the Kortright Program.

Type of placements; Voluntary Placement Agreement, PINS
or JD Court Ordered foster care placements.
Why a Voluntary Placement?
DSS may offer a voluntary placement agreement
which places the youth into foster care
immediately.
 Immediate interventions are put into place. This
can occur whether or not a PINS or JD Petition
has been filed.

Foster Care placement provides…
Assistance in helping the child to develop selfesteem and age appropriate independent
functioning at home, in school and community.
 Progressively introduce the child to a less
restrictive environment until a return home is
possible.

Treatment Services

A specialized treatment program is provided for
adolescent male sex offenders ( adjudicated or
not) at our local mental health clinic.

To provide individual treatment and group
treatment for those youth placed in the Kortright
Program.

Group treatment is also available for those youth
who are living at home but could benefit from
specialized mental health treatment concerning
sexual behaviors.
Treatment services continued…
Monthly consults with Dr. Hamill by treatment
team members.
 Phone consults with MH therapists and or Dr.
Hamill as needed.
 E-mail as needed
 Probation services

Use of Polygraphs

The use of polygraphs is another tool that may be used
in some cases. This technique may be used in the
dispositional stage of a legal PINS or JD proceeding or as
part of the youth’s mental health treatment.

We have determined that a youth should be a least 15
years of age or older when considering the use of the
polygraph.

This tool may be appropriate at any time during the life
of the case to help break through denial and to facilitate
treatment.
Public Interest and concerns
 Issues with school district, i.e.; funding, Special
Education Classification and programming.
 Kortright Program staffing
 Respite services
 Public Assistance
 Employment
 After care services

11 youth have been evaluated for the program since it’s
inception
 Number of evaluations completed since inception by
MHC (0) by Dr. Hamill ( 9 ), by another evaluator (1) and (1)
youth was deemed by Dr. Hamill to be in need of immediate
residential placement due to the severity of his sexual
offenses.
 Voluntary placements (4)
 PINS (2)
 JD (5)
 9 of these youth were placed in the Kortright Program. The
other two youth remained at home and were only involved in
the clinical treatment portion. (1 in individual treatment and
1 in group only) neither child ever entered foster care.
