Maxey is where Carpenter first sent him. There, he was kept in a treatment center with other juvenile delinquents. Maxey, operated by the state Family Independence Agency, houses 480 boys and young men, ages 13 through 20, convicted as juveniles of felonies and misdemeanors. The program offers high school classes, college classes, group counseling, job training and psychiatric care. The state pays that bill.
Boys attack guards, attack each other and try to kill themselves.
But Maxey also is a rough place, where a student killed a female worker seven years ago. Still, Maxey officials said their success rate has improved. In 1990, the rate was 41 percent. It's too early to tell the success rate of the youth prison, which opened in July. In December, workers at Maxey argued to send Norman to a Lansing halfway house.