The Creation AND IMPLEMENTATION of the "Stars and Stripes" Juvenile Correctional Program
Chapter I
ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF ‘STARS AND STRIPES’
Chapter II Origins and Explanation of the Principles
of Natural Systems
Chapter III. Implementing Stars and Stripes
Chapter IV Management of an Institution with Stars
and Stripes
Chapter V. Duplex Pyramid Model of Certification
Training
Chapter VI
Facilitating Youths' Growth in Maturity
PowerPoint SlideS Covering the Entire Program
1 A
Virtual
Tour of
the Harris County Youth
Village
Campus and
School
2
Contrasting
Traditional
Programs
with Stars
and
Stripes
3
Feature
Comparison
between
Stars and
Stripes
and Boot
Camp
4 How
Residents
Progress
in Stripes
to Star
5 Reasons
for
Adopting
"Stars and
Stripes"
6 Support
Team
Policy and
Guidelines
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY
OF NATURAL SYSTEMS
AND THE ORIGIN OF THE STARS AND STRIPES PROGRAM
by Edwin L. Young, PhD
June 1994
The logo for Natural Systems is the Duplex Pyramid above. It is meant to symbolize a true holistic approach. The upper, inverted Pyramid, symbolizes External Systems and the lower Pyramid symbolizes Internal Systems. External Systems have to do with social structures such as cultures, social institutions, agencies, buildings where human interactions occur like homes or schools and the like and even types of situations that typically occur in these places. Internal systems have to do with what is inside the person such as knowledge, perception, intentions, feelings and the like. For an in-depth description of the meaning of the Logo, go to the bottom of this page.
PHILOSOPHY
In Natural Systems, we are concerned with the interaction between the External Systems and the Internal Systems. The Internal Systems of the person are exquisitely sensitive to changes in the External Systems. The extremities of the upper and lower Pyramids are the most enduring or slowest to change. The most adaptable or flexible areas of the two Pyramids are at the point where the peaks touch. Therapeutic and Correctional modalities have traditionally focused on changing the individual person during their tenure in an institution. It is when residents are immediately involved in a modality that they seem to change most quickly. This creates the illusion of the success of the modality. When the residents leave the institution and enter the environments and settings which produced the ineffective or destructive Internal Systems and behaviors, this apparent success disappears and they revert to their former maladaptive patterns. And, not only so, but after seemingly successful sessions with a counselor in the institution, the resident eventually resumes their problem behavior.
The Natural Systems Philosophy was developed to address the profoundly mistaken assumption that therapeutic and correctional modalities must focus exclusively on the peak of the lower Pyramid. Operating on the opposite assumption that it is primarily the upper Pyramid that is the key to enduring, effective change in the person, Natural Systems began to focus on creating enduring changes in External Systems and Structures. Consequently, the principles of Natural Systems began to be employed in restructuring the total structure of a juvenile correctional institution.
This Web site is about the success of Natural Systems when it was applied to one juvenile correctional institution and resulted in a program we named "Stars and Stripes". The design of the new structure for the institution was based on the principles of Natural Systems. Using these principles, we sought to design structures and systems that would produce the most positive, pervasive, and enduring changes in every component of the Internal Systems of the residents, from the most surface interactions to the deepest inner selves of the resident population. This site provides the reader with a description of the aspects of the nature and current state of the "Stars and Stripes" program and the history of how it was developed.
FOUNDERS
"Stars and Stripes" was developed through the collaborative efforts of Ron Niksich, Ph.D. and Ed Young, Ph.D. Ron has a doctorate in Criminal Justice and a background in police work, academia, and many years as a chief administrator of juvenile correctional institutions. Ed has a doctorate in psychology and a background in academia, restructuring adult and juvenile correctional and related institutions, and as a psychotherapist with adolescents. Ron and Ed began their first collaborative effort in 1980 when Ron was the Director of the Dallas County Juvenile Detention Center. Their most recent collaborative effort actually began in 1992 and eventually resulted in the creation of "Stars and Stripes". The "Stars and Stripes" program officially began in the early spring of 1994. For those Chief Probation Officers who would want to implement "Stars and Stripes" in their county, an understanding of the processes of its development is essential. This development will be described in some detail in the following pages.
Stars and Stripes, a Juvenile Correctional Institution Program
PROGRAM
There are many aspects and elements to the "Stars and Stripes" program. At this point, a brief overview of two key features is in order. The first primary feature is that the entire organization of the institution and all of the staff are incorporated into the structure of the program. A second primary feature is that all of the residents are to progress through a sequence of levels referred to as the stripes and a final star. The criteria for progress through the sequence involve the acquisition and demonstration of increasingly mature and responsible behavior. The criteria are measured; require the consent of representatives from at least two departments who regularly observe the youth's progression and meet with the youth; and the concurrence of peers in their dormitory. Their progress up through higher stripes is signified by a designated color of t-shirt and additional stripes added to the t-shirt, as well as public recognition for their achievement. A more thorough description of the many other key aspects and elements of the structure of "Stars Stripes" will be provided in the pages that follow.
HISTORY OF PRINCIPLES
The "Stars and Stripes" program is the current embodiment of the principles of Natural Systems but there is a long history to the development of these principles dating back to 1968. The first principles began to evolve in 1968 when the Superintendent of a State Mental Hospital commissioned the staff of the admissions ward to initiate a holistic approach in which all of the professional and line staff were to work together to make the ward more like a natural environment. Additional factors that seemed to be highlights gradually emerged. All of the patients, along with the staff, were involved in the development of the program. The ward was gradually transformed into something like a combination second rate hotel and a typical town community center. All of the patients were enlisted to participate in a ward government. No one was to wear uniforms. Telephones were installed to be used at will. Jobs were developed for patients on the grounds and in the ward. Patients were allowed to make choices among the job possibilities. Patients were encouraged to form groups, with staff assistance, to talk about their problems and feelings. The use of medications was reduced to a bare minimum. These were some of the major highlights of this early program.
The program produced astounding results. The average length of stay was reduced from one year to four months and the recidivism rate dropped by about sixty percent. As a result of this success, over the next twenty-six years, similar approaches were used at a maximum security prison and several juvenile correctional institutions. At each site where this approach was tried, the results were equally astounding.
Key underlying principles were distilled from these experiences. Summarizing a few of the highlights, the following seemed crucial: having the total institution involved; giving the client population as much control over their individual destinies as was possible; providing ways for them to be mutually supportive for each other and responsible for the quality of life in the community; developing roles with role specific behaviors that entailed the development of mature social skills; developing ways to provide objective feedback; and naturalizing the social and physical environment in the institution.
OUTLINE OF NATURAL SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT APPROACHES
EVALUATION
These principles of Natural Systems were applied to the Harris County Youth Village. It took almost a year to develop "Stars and Stripes" and it was officially inaugurated in the spring of 1994. From that time until after its second year of operation, in 1996, data related to performance indicators for the institution for the prior two and a half years were collected, as was data from the year preceding the program. The data were statistically analyzed and are presented in a series of charts and tables at the end of this document. These statistics include annual number of runaways, incidents of violence and mechanical restraint, and required medical attention and worker's compensation costs. In addition, total annual costs of the "Stars and Stripes" institution were compared to other types of juvenile correctional institutions.
THE NATURAL SYSTEM'S DUPLEX PYRAMIDS
You are entering the web site of The Natural Systems Institute. Under the title above you will notice there are two pyramids, the top one being inverted. This is the logo of The Natural Systems Institute. The logo is called the Duplex Pyramids. They have a very special significance for Natural Systems. The top, inverted, pyramid represents external structures and systems. External structures have levels. For example, the most global level would be the universe, next would be the earth; then America; Texas; your city; your agency; your institution; your department; your position and roles you play; the various settings in your institution; situations that arise in those settings; relationships; and, finally, the verbal and physical behaviors involved in the interaction between two people. You can choose, or create, and change as needed, the external levels and their content that you will use in the analysis of the problem you are exploring.
The bottom pyramid represents the structures and processes inside of the person. For example, with respect to structures you could have roles and relationships and the interaction between two people from the point of view of and experience of just one person in a dyad; then there would be observable physical and verbal behavior from the point of view inside a person; cognitive processes; emotions and feelings; perception or the way the person sees their world; and, finally, the person's life history as recorded in their minds and formed into schemata of their world and behavioral schemes recorded in their minds to guide their actions within the external structures. Using 'structures' in your analysis of the inner person is a more static approach. For an elaborated version of the Duplex Pyramid model Click: Duplex Pyramids Elaborated with Titles
Introducing the Intentionality Model
Using processes is a more dynamic approach. With respect to the inner structures and processes of the bottom pyramid, there is another dynamic model of what I call 'Intentional Processes'. The Model of Intentionality was slow to develop. Like the Duplex Pyramids, particularly the top pyramid representing the External Structures and Processes, the processes of intentionality grew out of the first experiences of reforming, in 1967, the Admissions Ward of the Big Spring State Hospital, Big Spring, Texas. I sensed that the changes in the structure of the ward were inducing changes in particular aspects of the patients' inner world or intra-psychic world. These observations lingered in my mind over the years. As was the case with ruminations about the external structure, there also emerged a crude model of distinct inner processes. Year after year, the model was refined in its formulation.
As time went on and I experimented with restructuring one institution after another, I became convinced that specific aspects of a structure elicited somewhat specific changes in the inner person. From 1968 to 1982, I became increasing clear about the relation between the external structures and systems, the internal structures and processes, and finally the specific processes of intentionality.
In 1982, I entered the PhD Educational Psychology program at the University of Texas with the stated purpose of researching a Model of Intentionality that by then was developed well and clearly. In the fall of 1986, I formulated a dissertation proposal entitled "Testing a Model of Intentionality Using the Writing Process". Two years latter, I submitted an eight-hundred-page dissertation under that title. The statistical analysis of my propositions, my hypotheses, about the model was overwhelmingly significant. Out of over ten-thousand statistical tests, more than eighty present were significant. I now felt confident that I had a fairly good grasp, not only of what the processes were and how they interacted with one another, but, more importantly, I felt sure that I could design a structure for an institution that would definitely produce positive changes in the inner person of each member of the entire resident population. I was sure that these changes would be clearly observed in their behavior.
In 1993 at the Harris County Youth Village, I finally got the opportunity to put my theories (actually hunches) to work. Within about eight months of starting to try to design and implement the program, "Stars and Stripes" was inaugurated. Within six months of inauguration, it became abundantly clear that the program was an overwhelming success, far beyond what I had expected.
The Focus is on the Processes of Intentionality
Below is a very brief description of the way one would go about discerning a person's, in this case a resident's, intentional processes. Using these simple definitions, a program designer would know where to focus within the person. This should help the designer to focus on aspects of the external structures of the institution that would mostly like elicit changes in specific aspects of the resident's intentional processes. One must make, to use the term loosely, a leap of faith when creating the design. The only way to feel that one had been correct or to evaluate the degree of correctness in their hunches was to examine performance indicators. This approach is extraordinarily lacking in the rigor one expects in a psychological experiment. However, when the proof shows up so well in the pudding, who am I to get pedantic about scientific correctness. That being said, here are the very loose and general descriptions of the intentional processes that were used as guides in designing the program.
You could examine, or attend to, the processes of perception of a single individual, or you could examine how they uniquely tend to perceive their world.
You could examine the unique way a person retrieves schemata and schemes just referred to in the external structures.
You could examine the way the person tends to assess their schemata of the external world and their internal world.
You could examine the pleasure and pain sensations and feelings the person experiences and the way these hedonic reactions shape their personality and steer their navigation through the world.
You could examine how this steering occurs. From the Natural Systems perspective, it seems to occur through a kind of categorizing of the experiences whereby some experiences, pain or pleasure, are incorporated and some are dis-incorporated while some we could say are pseudo-incorporated or pseudo-dis-incorporated. These pseudo categories are like faking it inside the head but leads to faking it in relation to others. Some pain and pleasure sensations and feelings are simply the subject of ongoing hopeful curiosity or pessimistic questioning, or just left open-ended. Finally, some, whether physically painful or pleasant, have to be repressed. In other words, peoples' inner worlds are chopped up or parceled into these various states. The way the content of the world falls into these states or categories forms their worldview.
You could examine the content of how they envision the future as based on these states of "incorporation". You could also examine how they envision what might possibly happen in the future and what they might possibly do in the future. These are highly significant inner processes.
You could examine how they use these processes to select the criteria that will make them feel fulfilled. This is a fulcrum concept as, although it is hidden, often from the person themselves, this process, nevertheless, is the guiding principle of their life. Resolving the discrepancy between the demands of external structures and their inner criteria for fulfillment by making decisions and then setting goals is a crucial process Often a person will go through all of these processes up to this point of setting criteria for fulfillment and then will have a sense of 'foreshadowing' of how it is going to turn out. This foreshadowing that may be bleak or optimistic, while the actual outcome could be quite different from their foreshadowing. Often people can tell you about this experience of fulfillment or lack of it and matching or not matching their foreshadowing. But, we are getting ahead of ourselves here.
Once they have gone through all of these processes, which occur very rapidly, they usually engage in the adventure of trying to achieve their goal and then, at the end, experiencing degrees of that sense of fulfillment that comes from their reaching their criteria.
Normally they will meet obstacles and barriers along the way and will have to disengage, review, or mirror what they have done and how they have done it as well as what they have encountered along the way, revise some part of their strategy or plan and then re-engage.
Finally, the person will come to the completion phase in which they have had varying degrees of success or failure. Sometimes, at this point, they will make revisions once again but then, in the end, they will always store their experiences in a memory bank of schemata and schemes for future use.
Designing
Programs that are Reoriented
away from a medical 'Illness and Cure Model'
and from a justice 'Crime and Punishment Model'
and toward a 'Maturity
and Structural Change Model'
Every aspect of the Stars and Stripes program is designed to work together toward eliciting more mature responses. The organization and management of the institution; the jobs and roles of the staff; setting the mission, goals, and objectives of the institution; the manner of evaluating the performance of the institution; the performance evaluation of the staff; the manner of setting goals for each resident; the manner of evaluating the progress of the resident; the manner of setting and meshing schedules for setting goals and evaluating and acknowledging progress toward and achievement of goals; the creation within both staff and residents of a sense of community and mutual facilitation of responsibility for enhancing and maintaining the quality of community life; the manner of recording and communicating and even celebrating the progress toward and achievement of goals by both residents and staff, all are designed to facilitate progress in several crucial aspects of maturity. Since every aspect of the institution is involved in the program and operates on a twenty-four seven basis, no aspect of the residents' lives are neglected in this drive toward facilitation of maturity. There are no gaps in the schedule that would make a regression toward less mature behavior possible. The result is that all of the intentional processes are challenged to mature together in and integrated fashion. Therefore, positive structures and systems are created that cause mutual facilitation toward maturity for the entirety of people involved in the institution.
Natural Systems, with its Duplex Pyramid, uses these external structures and systems and internal structures and processes to bring a holistic perspective to the human problems we face. It provides a framework that can guide those who have the responsibility to design programs. With the Duplex Pyramid approach, one can approach a problem by systematically looking at the external structures and systems and the internal structures and processes all together and then consider how each element of the Duplex Pyramid will influence the other. This is the opposite of the more fragmented, narrow approaches that are often taken in such problem solving situations in the modern, complex world. This seems to be the more natural and 'human-friendly', as well as, in the end, the more practical, approach. As modern society itself has become so complex and fragmented, it is now not natural (or rather not easy) to take the natural approach. Natural Systems is an attempt to bring back the 'human-friendly', natural approach. However, now it has to be re-learned and, as it were, updated to the complexity of the modern world. Consequently, The Natural Systems Institute is dedicated to (re-)educating leaders in the human services areas in this holistic, human-friendly, method of analysis of social problems as well as the design of human programs so that their methods are based on the Duplex Pyramids. It is not an easy task. If you invest the energy and time in learning the Natural Systems approach, I feel quite sure the dividends will be surprisingly huge.
FOR COMMENTS: mailto:dredyoung@TheNaturalSystemsInstitute.org
