Youth offenders who are sentenced to correctional institutions are typically required to participate in various forms of psychological treatment. Despite high costs and poor results associated with these placements, little is known about how psychological treatment strategies are integrated into traditional correctional models or how these essentially competing philosophies operate together. Through field observations and semi-structured interviews, the authors expose several paradoxes of treatment that emerged in a county juvenile correctional facility for youthful male offenders in a large Midwestern American city. The authors provide a critical perspective on the blending of treatment and correctional approaches to juvenile rehabilitation.