KIDS COUNT 2004
Critical connections
The following is adapted from the Kids Count 2004
Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This excerpt is about
young people involved in the juvenile justice system.
No experience may be more predictive of future adult
difficulty than having been confined in a secure juvenile facility. Many
youth are held in detention centers because they have been arrested and
are simply waiting for trial; others are incarcerated in secure
congregate care facilities because they have been sentenced for a crime.
However youth enter juvenile custody, almost all are at significant risk
of failure when they exit.
For example, each year, there are more than 600,000
admissions to secure detention facilities. According to recent federal
statistics, there are approximately 27,000 youth in these institutions
on any given day, an increase of almost 100 percent since 1985. Despite
public stereotypes that these are very dangerous youth, fewer than
one-third are charged with offenses involving violence. More than
one-third are detained for status offenses (non-criminal offenses such
as running away) and various technical violations of probation and other
rules. Approximately two-thirds of these kids are minority youth, and
virtually all of the growth in detention over the past 15 years is due
to greatly increased rates of detention for African Americans and
Latinos. About two-thirds of all youth admitted to secure detention
facilities will enter institutions that are overcrowded and unsafe. By
professional standards, such places are unable to provide the kinds of
custody or care that these youth require. The needs of detained and
incarcerated youth are many and often severe:
- One-half to three-fourths of incarcerated youth
nationwide are estimated to suffer from a mental health disorder.
Suicide within juvenile detention and correctional facilities is
more than four times greater than in the general population. At the
same time, researchers and administrators alike decry the lack of
appropriate assessment and treatment services for confined youth
with mental health problems.
- It is estimated that more than half of all
detained youth have drug use problems that require substance abuse
treatment, yet relatively few facilities provide such services. One
survey found that treatment for adolescent substance offenders was
available in less than 40 percent of the nation’s public and private
youth facilities.
- Academically, incarcerated youth function at a
significantly lower level than peers their age. Studies indicate
that although 10 percent to 12 percent of the general population
suffers from learning disabilities, rates are as high as 42 percent
among the correctional population. Yet reviews of educational
programs in these institutions consistently indicate that
incarcerated youth receive markedly substandard and inadequate
educational services. Their educational progress is further
compromised because school districts are often averse to
re-enrolling youth upon their release and often refuse to accept any
academic credits that they may have earned while incarcerated.
- Confined youth lose daily contact with their
families, lose valuable school time, and are unlikely to have their
health and mental health needs met. They are much more likely to be
tutored in crime than they are in math, and their mentors are much
more likely to be offenders than caring adults. The reality is that
months in confinement can increase the odds of negative adult
outcomes for a 16-year-old by jump-starting a spiral of failure that
often becomes impossible to escape. Far too often, incarceration
under current practices serves as a trip wire for long-term criminal
involvement and future failure.
- The overall effects of confinement, combined with
our dismal national record for providing quality after-care services
for youth once they are released, make adolescent incarceration a
significant risk factor for compromised adulthoods. For example:
- Once incarcerated, youth are far less likely to
gain the education credentials to succeed. One longitudinal study of
incarcerated 9th graders found that only slightly more than half
returned to school when released. Of these, more than two-thirds
dropped out or withdrew within 1 year of re-enrolling, and 4 years
later, only 15 percent had completed high school.20 Other research
also confirms that most released juvenile offenders 16 and older
never return to any formal education.
- Incarcerated youth, without appropriate
treatment, connections, and support systems, are more likely to
re-offend and get re-arrested. Numerous studies point to recidivism
rates of 50 percent to 75 percent.22 In fact, prior confinement is
the strongest predictor of future incarceration. It is actually a
stronger predictor than gang membership, poor parental relations,
prior offense history, and other characteristics.
- The effects of incarceration on prospective
employment are profound. Formerly incarcerated youth work 3 to 5
weeks less a year than those never incarcerated—a disadvantage that
carries over far into adulthood. Controlling for other factors, the
impact of incarceration on employment is greater than the impact of
a youth living in a high unemployment area or being a high school
dropout. According to the London School of Economics, having been in
jail is the most important deterrent to employment, and its effect,
even years later, is persistent and substantial.
Access the entire Kids Count essay and databook online
at the Annie E. Casey Foundation Web site.
http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/databook/
10 June 2004
http://www.connectforkids.org/benton_topics1544/benton_topics_show.htm?doc_id=227624
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