Bill Dorsey works as a shift supervisor at the Ada County Juvenile Justice Detention Center in Boise, Idaho. Outside of his daily duties, Dorsey also provides a valuable service to the youths held in detention — he teaches music. By providing guitar, mandolin and drumming lessons, Dorsey creates a space for kids to learn skills and find their passion by engaging in healthy, communal activities. Since Dorsey began his informal musical instruction, the detention center now incorporates a “healthy hobbies” program that includes gardening and fly fishing.

Traditionally, recreation-based treatment programs like the one Dorsey runs are geared toward people with disabilities, injuries or illnesses. Using arts and crafts, drama, music, dance, sports and community outings, recreational therapists help maintain or improve a patient’s physical, social and emotional well-being.

But increasingly, programs like the “healthy hobbies” program offered in Boise are using these same methods to address the needs of kids who have engaged in criminal behavior. These programs focus on cultivating life skills in juveniles that will benefit them once they re-enter society.

[For more on this story by Jesse Kelley, go to https://jjie.org/2018/08/06/re...-juvenile-detention/]