OPTIONS FOR YOUNG OFFENDERS

When a minor is committed to the state Department of Juvenile Justice, he or she can be placed in a program for low-risk youth, such as probation or in-home detention, or a program for children who need greater supervision, including residential facilities that look like adult prisons. Here's a look at the state's main options:

Probation: Minors remain at home with their parents or guardians. They may be ordered by a judge to pay restitution or perform community service. Often, children must abide by a curfew or attend counseling or anger-management classes.

Day treatment: Operated by private, mostly nonprofit agencies, these programs offer education and therapy for at-risk children in their home communities. The minors are allowed to return home each night.

Practical and Educational Programs: Informally known as PACE for Girls, these programs - with services in both Broward and Miami-Dade - address special problems of delinquent girls.

Halfway houses: Delinquent children live in group homes with trained staff, including probation officers, therapists and houseparents. If they complete the programs, the youth are returned to their homes.

Wilderness camps: Set in forests or wilderness areas, the camps offer education programs, rigorous physical exercise and recreation in a setting designed to teach discipline, teamwork and leadership.

Residential programs: These locked facilities, which vary from minimum-security camps to institutions that resemble adult prisons, were designed to punish and rehabilitate delinquent youth. Some of the camps also offer substance-abuse treatment, mental health counseling and therapy for sex offenders.

Boot camps: These military-style programs were designed around the principles of basic training for new recruits. Youth must perform strenuous physical exercise and learn to accept the authority of sheriff's office "drill instructors." Children who complete the program are expected to be highly disciplined.