U.S. leads developed world in locking up its young. What now?
March 12, 2013
Read about the problem and recent improvements here: New York Times: Better care for juvenile offenders?
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CJS-360 Diversity Issues 
Its about time this issue is being brought to light, I personally believe that the US is so big on helping out every other country we neglect our own. Teens these days are always getting in to trouble, but the issue has been locking them up with more sophisticated teens an more serious delinquents that influence these younger ones to go out an commit even more serious crimes. Restorative justice is a big way to help teens an lots of programs in inner cities have some influence but there needs to be more.
I agree this is a big issue in the U.S. that needs more attention. I think more needs to be invested in restorative programs. I personally think once you start putting a juvenile in coonfinement its hard to rehabiltiate them because the enviorment they’ve been in.I think before the juvenile is locked up they should try restoratvie justice because I think this tecnique qould have an better outcome then locking up juveniles. I know someone who has been locked up in the juvenile system and once they got out the juvenile system they got worser and eventually once they became a adult they commited a felony. I think help the juvenile before locking them up would possibly deter them from commiting future crimes.
Many offenders start their “criminal career” as a juvenile. Once a juvenile is sent through the corrections system, then it’s pretty much a guarantee that they are a member for quite a long time. It’s interesting to hear that there is potential at the federal level to “humanize the juvenile justice system”. The article points out the negative statistics of juveniles who are locked up. The problem with changing up the juvenile justice system is where to draw the line on actually punishing a juvenile verses treatment or some other alternative. The second issue is being able to tie the crime to a rehabilitative service. A juvenile convicted of theft may not be able to attend a program to teach them not to steal. They may benefit from group therapy, if the victim agrees and the juvenile understands their actions. Do you sentence a juvenile who committed murder to jail or do you give them treatment? Every person has a different avenue of right and wrong – ok and punishable. It will be interesting to see the statistics on the outcomes and long term affect of treatment verses locking up a juvenile.
The US justice system needs to place more value in drug rehab, mentoring, and other diversion programs. It has been proven that when a young person is mentor or shown some intrest by a caring adult they succeed and excel in life. If the US put more money into education and recreation programs kids would not be involved in gangs or getting into trouble. We dont have a lot of bad kids in the world, just a lot of misled kids.
These are great points made that I agree with. It’s great to see the government is understanding the issue as well because not only can these programs give our youth a chance to turn there life around and also help our incarceration issues in the U.S. today. It is well documented that we are locking up far to many offenders and these types of program will not only keep people out of jails and prison’s in the short term, it will help prevent them from being in this type of situation later in life. Sometimes the stigma attached to a juvenile who has a criminal background is a tough thing to escape, if we let these young men and women know we understand they have made mistakes, we also understand that does not have to be who they are.
Although incarceration rates are slowing down for young offenders, they are still high nonetheless. The factor I see as the main culprit is the breakdown of family and community bonds, otherwise known as the social disorganization theory. Strain theory is another explanation that could help explain the factors responsible for juvenile delinquency. I do not believe that kids are born bad; they became bad because of what they saw and experienced. To have 71,000 young people locked up means we have 71,000 individuals who will most likely never know what it feels to be successful in life and how to become a contributing member of society. What’s worse is when the justice system does feel it’s necessary to keep a child confined in an institution, they are not provided with adequate vocational and social skills to survive efficiently in the real world. I think a restorative justice philosophy is the smartest plan if we want young offenders to rehabilitate themselves. I’d also like if punishment would come in the form of education since most under correctional supervision are in need.
I think this is a very important issue that needed to be brought forward. I think that by imprisoning our youth it is only hurting them. Now don’t get me wrong there are some crimes in which youth offenders should serve time based on severity; rape, assault, murder, etc. When they are locked up for petty crimes they may be placed with others that are doing hard time, which creates an atmosphere were the youth can learn from others about different crimes and how to commit other crimes. In fact we are not teaching they are doing wrong, but helping feed them the information to continue doing what they were doing, being bad. In Illinois in 2007, more African American males were locked up in correctional facilities then those that were enrolled in school at almost an average ratio of 60% to 2%. This is awful when you think about our nations future. Also, 4 times as many whites attend college then those in correctional facilities, however,there are more African Americans and Hispanics in a correctional institution than those attending college. This is our future yet we are putting them away and not trying to help rehabilitate them on first time offenses.
I was impressed to learn that the number of youth currently incarcerated in our country has decreased in recent years. It is nice to know that despite rising incarceration rates and overcrowded prisons that at least the amount of youth incarcerated has gone down. I think having a department administrator named for the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is another step in the right direction. Recidivism is a very important topic of discussion in law enforcement and criminal justice fields. Finding and utilizing ways to lower the amount of recidivism is always important. By appointing an administrator to look over a department that directly works to lower the rate of youth delinquency and recidivism there will hopefully be statistical data in the coming years that shows an even greater improvement in the youth crime rate and the amount of youth who are incarcerated. I believe that focusing on our nation’s youth population is one of the most important contributing factors towards reducing the adult crime rate and the amount of adult recidivism.
Eric,
The reason why incarceration rates have gone down in recent years is due to alternative sanctions regarding juveniles who violate the law. One such organization used in the Twin Cities is called “Youth link”. They have an after school program and a shelter for youth. It’s a great program that not only gives kids a place to go after school to keep them out of trouble but provides a number of services that teach children independent living skills. Another program that Hennepin County uses and is taught by probation officers is called “A.R.T” which if my memory serves me correctly it stands for Anger Redirecting Training. It teaches kids to look for the source of their anger as well to recognize their own triggers when they feel themselves getting angry and to talk and express their emotions in an appropriate way. I thought it was a really good program and was surprised to see how well the kids embraced the class. However regardless of how low the incarceration rates have become and the number of alternative sanctions available recidivism is still going to be an issue, the reason I found being the lack of a strong support system that the juvenile has. If there was some way to fix this, the likelihood of a juvenile reoffending would drop considerably.
I agree with this article and happy that this situation is being looked into. I worked in Juvenile probation for about a year, and was assigned to a probation officer who worked at a level 4 school. I’m not sure how it works in other counties or at the state level, but what I can tell you is that in Hennepin County it takes multiple violations , or one very serious violation for a juvenile to enter into the probation system and even when they are the focus is to keep the child out of placement. This is done by the probation officer coordinating a wide variety of services for both the child and the family to use. A lot of children that are on probation come from dysfunctional and broken households. Many of the parents don’t know how to be parents and the child is brought up with a lack of discipline and with weak social ties. A couple of the programs that we used were geared towards trying to build strong family ties. Sadly these programs are rarely able to achieve their purpose due to lack of follow through by both the child and their parents/guardians. I can’t tell you how many times a parent or/guardian would tell us that there’s nothing wrong with their family. It is purely their child’s fault. The child just needs to straighten up or be locked up. Many times both the parents and the child will place the blame on the probation system for not helping them and screwing their life up. There’s not a whole that can be done in this situation when it’s reached that point. I have seen the effects of placement and do agree that there are some benefits too it however the effects are short-term, unless the juvenile has a strong support system to go back to.
According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in 2009, 13 percent of all arrests made by police officers were of juveniles and in 2009; this was a historic low for juvenile arrests for violent crimes. The arrest rates of juveniles has been on the decline, in the recent decade there has been a growing and arising concern about the seriousness and frequency of juvenile offending. Focusing on these juvenile offenders specifically, the rate of reoffending juvenile offenders is on the rise and becoming more harmful and violent. There is a higher rate of juvenile criminal offense arrests compared to status offenses. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) statistics demonstrates this by stating in 2009, juveniles were arrested 1 in 11 for murder, 1 in 5 for weapons violations, and 1 in 4 for robbery, burglary, larceny/theft, and motor vehicle theft. These numbers are astonishing because they show that juvenile delinquencies in these violent crimes are more common.
With these statistics I believe that this shows that the United States does have a higher rate of offending youth compared to other countries. Specifically, with violent crimes committed by youth would be a partial explanation of the high incarceration rates of youth in the U.S. I do not agree with the continual locking up of juveniles and I do believe that diversion programs and restorative justice is needed for these juveniles. There does need to be improvements for juveniles and there needs to be importance placed on this nations juveniles, they are the future of this country.
Although incarceration rate is slowing down for juveniles there still is a problem with the juveniles commiting crimes. Most criminals start committing crimes at a very young age. In this day in age there are a lot of sigle parents who have to work and the children are left at howme to make do.
I can share that I was a single parent that raised 3 sons. I worked 12-13 hours a day, I had rules that I had laid down and expected that my children would follow them until othat incident I ne day when my middle son thought that I wasn’t at home and the police brought him home only to find out that he had been going to the local gas station on a daily basis sometimes 3 times a day to steal pop, candy, ect. After the disciple for stealing at the gas station that didn’t make him stop I then put him in a saturday boot camp will that didn’t help he then went to target and stole a cd this is when he cought his first case at about age 13. As a parent no mother wants their child locked up however he had a probation officer that lead him to believe that everything was okay now at age 24 he stole something when he was 23 and it all caught up with him not realizing that he now has 4 kids and him being incarcerated is not only hurting him but also his children. I don’t blame anyone but my son for his incarceration however I do believe that if that very first probation officer was tough on my son that it would have made a difference in his life. Locking juveniles up without any expert or a probation officer that will be a enforcer this will maybe detour the juveniles from the bad behaviors.
Washro, I strongly agree with this alternative. Put children in a group home rather than the county jail or prison makes more sense to me. Children grow up with all types of backgrounds. Every child is different in their own way and so are their minds and the way they lash out with the anger or disagreements. Over the past decade researchers have identified intervention strategies and program models that reduce delinquency and promote pro-social development. Preventing delinquency, says Peter Greenwood, not only saves young lives from being wasted, but also prevents the onset of adult criminal careers and thus reduces the burden of crime on its victims and on society. It costs states billions of dollars a year to arrest, prosecute, incarcerate, and treat juvenile offenders. Investing in successful delinquency-prevention programs can save taxpayers seven to ten dollars for every dollar invested, primarily in the form of reduced spending on prisons. (Peter Greenwood)
The United States leads the world in locking up its youth. There were 71,000 juveniles locked up in American prisons in 2010. Youth ages 12-17 are twice as likely to be victims of non-fatal violent crimes, are at risk at being victimized by both children and adults, and is disproportionately made up of minority juveniles.
The article recommends that community based programs are used to discipline juveniles. Community based programs sometimes have a faith based component that put the juvenile in contact with churches and families in the community. The juvenile offender meets with positive influences in the community and feels more connected to the community thus making them less likely to reoffend.
Community based programs allow juveniles to serve the community for offenses they committed against individual or individuals in community. This form of justice serves the juvenile and the community. The juvenile can see the effects of their actions on the community and can pay some form of restitution through service or monetarily.
The United States should strive to maintain its legacy of being the number one country globally, by paying attention to the issue of juvenile incarceration and criminalization. We should refrain from sending our youths to jail/prison especially minorities for little infractions that could have been corrected through community based programs. In my opinion, community based programs does work and should be use often to nurture better future for our youths, because they are the future. According to recent data by the Department of Education, African American students are arrested far more often than their white classmates. The data showed 96,000 students were arrested and 242,000 referred to law enforcement by schools during the 2009-10 school years. Of those students, black and Hispanic students made up more than 70 percent of arrested or referred students. Harsh school punishments, from suspensions to arrests, have led to high numbers of youth of color coming into contact with the juvenile-justice system and at an earlier age.
It is time now, in the twenty-first century, for our legislatures to make that jump- to stop criminalizing juveniles, give parents the opportunity to train their children, and assist parents in in any way possible by fostering better education, healthcare program, and much more needed to enhance youth’s overall performance. Delinquent juveniles who are in need of re-parenting can become better members of the society, if the government collaborates with parents to redirect the youths by instilling better moral values into them, therefore steering them away from the life of crime and most commonly status offenses.
I think the system should focus more on youth rehabilitation and eradicate racial profiling as this approach will keep youths close to their families and local institutions, therefore reducing recidivism. The idea of locking them up and throwing away the keys will deprive them of necessary education, employment, life skills and much more that will directly, or indirectly linger on and create future problems for all. Taking the lead in locking up our youths tarnishes our image of being a great leader/country worldwide. Fostering better future for all should be our ultimate goal.
I completely agree with Gordon McLean’s assessment of the juvenile delinquency problem. He writes, “ We gain nothing by dealing with young offenders in adult court, except a bigger bill for longer warehousing that neither punishes equitably, offers a deterrent or makes our communities safer. Taking a naive young fool and running him through the adult correctional system risks his later return as a sophisticated, hardened criminal.” Chicago Tribune, December 27, 1993.
I think a few things can be done however, for example:
Early intervention with the least restrictive but most effective method possible to impact the offender works when attempting to solve the problem of juvenile delinquency. In other words, an 11-year-old juvenile who commits an infraction does not need to be incarcerated with a 17-year-old felon with a history of violent offenses. Diversion programs that offer education classes based on the specific offenses provide a foundation to address the issue that caused the arrest in the first place. Sometimes, counseling can assist offenders who have substance abuse or mental health issues. Other offenders benefit from probation and close supervision in the community. According to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, incarceration should be reserved for the most violent juvenile offenders only when absolutely necessary for the safety of society. Its also not surprising that if the US has the largest share of its citizens behind bars as compared to the rest of the world, then its only logical that that goes for its younger people too. Tragic statistic to bear!
You bring up a couple really good points and while I don’t necessarily disagree with you I wonder about your thoughts about incarcerating juveniles in general. The example you give is that an 11 year old shouldn’t be locked up with a 17 year old. However, should the 17 year old even be locked up? I feel that a 17 year old still has a chance to be rehabilitated with alternative methods. I don’t think we should give up on them just because they are 17. There are still options for that juvenile to participate in other programs. What do you think?
I don’t think that by locking up the youth will deter them from further criminal activities. I think that this will make them want to do it more because they are now labeled as “criminals” and they believed that now that they have a criminal background, they are “bad” people and they can do whatever they want to do. I think that creating programs to help the youth to become more connected to the communities and their families is a better way of preventing the youth to do criminal activities before or after they have gone to jail or prison. I think these programs are like second chances to those that have done wrong and a prevention to those that not done anything yet.
I think that locking up young offender will label them and make them become more into someone they are not. Since they are labeled as “the trouble maker” or as “the criminal” they will start to act out to become what they were labeled. I think that the system and the community should figure out a way to create more programs to help keep the parents more involved in their children’s lives and help keep the community involved as a whole so that the area they live in will be safer since everyone will know one another and know the usual activities that are going on in the neighbor to help keep children off from doing things they shouldn’t do.
This was a very interesting article. I had no idea that the Obama administration had been working on making positive changes to the juvenile justice system. This is great news as the juvenile system needs major help. I have read other articles as well that also say research has shown that simply locking up young people has negative effects. It makes it very likely that they will become a permanent part of the criminal justice system.
I think that dealing with low-level young offenders through community-based programs is a great idea and makes the most sense. Keeping them closely connected to their families and to local institutions, while also helping and giving them the needed skills and knowledge will help them stay away from a life of crime. Another good thing to watch for would be to catch them at their first offense and not to let it escalate to more serious crime, when it may be too late to intervene with community programs or treatment. Our system needs to have the time and enough people employed to be able to view each juvenile individually and give them the best possible program or plan for them.
I completely agree with the article that we need to find other ways to deal with juvenile offenders rather than incarcerating them. Many “career criminals” start breaking the law as juveniles and end up being in and out of the system for their entire lives. If we provide early intervention programs for these kids and teach them life skills to be successful they are more likely to be productive in society rather than becoming a burden. Depending on what the juvenile’s needs are there are many options for alternative programming. Drug treatment, special classes, anger management, job training, education classes, or post secondary are all options we can look at to give these kids tools and resources to stay out of the system.
This is a good article that identifies a serious issue we face in the United States. Youth incarceration is not a viable route in punishment unless it is a violent offender. Offenders that get entered into the Juvenile Justice system are likely candidates for recidivism. Youth offenders are molded into career criminals when exposed to prison. In other words they learn how to be better criminals. Other methods have had much success in pointing youths to the correct path. Restorative justice is one method that comes to mind. Although that article explains that we have the lowest incarcerated youths in 30 years, it still is not good enough. We need to identify problems early and try more preventative measures.
I believed that locking up young offender really does hurt the youths more then it helps. One thing it that the low offender has to deal with the higher offender. This might raise the possibility that the lower offender will offend again. Which is the opposite of what locking them up is supposed to do. This also would put label on them as delinquent and this could make them become delinquent due to the label. If programs are looked at more than locking them up then these labels would not be used and would prevent the offender from being around more delinquent people. Have programs that have the parents and kids interact with the community would help out a little. If they are involved with the community than they might not do some delinquent behavior but to think to get rid of all the delinquent behavior is impossible.