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Study: Locking Up Juveniles Makes Them More Likely To Be Adult Criminals
June 27, 2014
A new report by a youth advocacy group argues against the widespread U.S. practice of locking up teen offenders — a practice that has been on the decline in Florida under the state’s outgoing juvenile justice chief.
Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary Wansley Walters, whose last day on the job is Monday, said “Safely Home,” a study by the non-profit Youth Advocate Programs, Inc., is consistent with developments at DJJ during her three-and-a-half-year tenure.
“Safely Home,” which was released Tuesday, argues that the deeper kids go into the juvenile justice system — and the tighter the security in which they’re detained — the less likely it is that they will ever be rehabilitated.
“Institutions provide virtually none of the supports the community can,” wrote the Youth Advocate Programs’ Policy and Advocacy Center. “Youth need to learn how to function and make good decisions within the community, and having the support of caring, competent adults and access to safe and positive people, places and activities is what leads to good long-term outcomes. Kids can’t access these supports in isolation.”
Walters agrees. She has spent time and resources to help community programs provide family therapy, individualized mental health services, substance abuse treatment and anger management classes for young offenders— while keeping them where they’re most likely to find support.
“One of the most important ways of turning kids around that have been in trouble is not ostracizing them from the rest of the community, but allowing them to participate in sporting programs, Boys and Girls Clubs — the kind of programs that make them want to succeed,” she said.
According to DJJ, the number of beds in the most secure facilities in Florida’s juvenile-justice system dropped 42 percent from January 2011 and January 2014. Between fiscal year 2010-11 and fiscal year 2012-13, juvenile arrests declined 23 percent and felony juvenile arrests declined 17 percent, while transfers to adult court declined 36 percent.
Last week, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill (HB 7055) rewriting the laws that govern the Department of Juvenile Justice and placing some of Walters’ reform into state law.
And Walters’ successor, incoming Interim Secretary Kristy Daly, pledges to continue her emphasis on front-end and rehabilitative services.
The report by Youth Advocate Programs, Inc., whose purpose is keeping young people out of institutions, argues that removing kids from their communities may lessen “any perceived immediate risk to the public,” but that incarceration doesn’t change the trajectory of their lives.
“Risk factors that make youth vulnerable to incarceration cannot be eliminated through incarceration,” the report says. “In fact, many of the environmental and social factors that contribute to youth incarceration get worse, not better, with incarceration.”
Nell Bernstein, author of a new book called “Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison,” said incarceration should be the exception, not the rule.
“I saw kids get chewed up in institutions,” said Bernstein, who got her start as a six-dollar-an-hour staffer in a San Francisco group home and has interviewed hundreds of incarcerated youth.
Bernstein said that contrary to common perception, much of the violence that juveniles experience in lock-up is at the hands of the guards.
“According to federal research, 12 percent of juveniles behind bars will be sexually assaulted,” she said. “And on some level, we know that, right? … But what I think people don’t know is that out of that 12 percent, 10 percent are assaulted by guards, only 2 percent by other wards.”
While Bernstein and the Youth Advocate Programs argue for the lowest amount of juvenile detention, Walters said political reality dictates a certain amount.
“Many times, it is those communities that demand of those judges and those prosecutors that those children be removed from that community and sent somewhere,” she said. “Knowing that that is a reality that we live with, we have worked hard to change those numbers.”
There will always be a hard core of offenders who threaten public safety, she said, but most can be rehabilitated with the right services and interventions.
The Youth Advocate Programs report also touts community programs for their cost-effectiveness, maintaining that they can deliver the same services for a fraction of the cost, serving three to four times as many young offenders.
The report cites the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Research and Evaluation Center, which found that of 3,523 high-risk youth living at home and supported by an intensive community-based program nationwide, 86 percent remained arrest-free while in the program.
by Margie Menzel, The News Service of Florida
Comments
24 Responses to “Study: Locking Up Juveniles Makes Them More Likely To Be Adult Criminals”
The sad thing about being a kid today-they aren’t allowed to be kids anymore. Now, don’t get me wrong as I do not condone criminal behavior. However, not that many years ago, things like toilet papering trees, silly kid pranks were not considered criminal acts. Now, it seems if a kid is caught doing something this harmless, they are arrested and treated like felons. I am glad I was born in the 50’s and was raised in the 60’s and 70’s. Life was simpler and silly/young teenage pranks weren’t considered criminal. Call me old fashion-mom in the workforce, daddy working, taking prayers out of the schools is messing up our society.
The penal system was not meant to rehabilitate people. It was meant for punishment.
If we spent more on education and less on prisons more than half of this problem would take care of itself. Break the cycle of poverty, crime and prison with education and opportunity. We’re spending billions in other countries when we have basic needs here.
So many true and correct statements.
There is an awful lot of abuse in the system.
I know because I worked for the system for many years.
Lots of taxpayers money down the drain.
YES, there are “some” kids that just plain refuse to live a decent life and needs to be locked up, but I have seen many kids locked up that should not have been.
I have seen very young children, as young as 7 and 8 years old brought into the facility.
And as for the “alternative” schools. Nothing but a JOKE! Visit one anytime, and most likely you will walk into a classroom and see the teacher with their legs propped up on the desk, with the kids running wild while the teacher is on a cell phone. Young kids running around out of control. And the teachers are no better.
Most anyone could start an “Alternative” school. Just open up a building, name it, hire a few helpers to act like a teacher, ask the Government for money, and there you go folks. Seen it!
DON: An extra chromosome does NOT make a person “bad” nor does it make them animal like…THINK before you type. I personally have a child with an extra chromosome and know she’s neither one!
BTW,there is NO ac/heat in prison..and I don’t always agree that locking a kid up is the way to help them. Have you ever thought about what they learn in there,from the hardened career criminals? Jail/prison isnt always the answer. Not all people who break the law should go to prison. Some get in trouble ONCE and never return again. I think it all depends on the life they want to lead ,what they have been taught,and how they’re raised!
just my opinion
all these bad kids are at the alternative school they go to school then go out and rob & shoot people.most of the time you watch the news it one of them they should send them off way away from here and lock them up
I’m not sure the kids as a whole are any worse today than they were in previous generations.
I’m not sure the worst today are any worse than the worst of previous generations or a greater percentage.
I went to school with some good kids and some mighty sorry ones.
Some got better. Some got worse. Most stayed about the same.
And those who depended on the schools to introduce their children to Christ, rather than doing it themselves, may have been poor witnesses and examples.
My parents taught me long before I first set foot in school and led the way. My God doesn’t depend on government invitation to live in my heart. If He did, there wouldn’t be much to Him.
Gary,
Some of the solutions you tried may have been counterproductive.
Sometimes even the practice of switching forms of discipline may be counterproductive. (“If I hold out long enough, he’ll switch to something else.”)
And, of course, it may actually be hopeless, especially by now. Pray for guidance if you believe.
Guards rape a tenth of the kids in jail?
No wonder some feel they are not properly respected.
Wonder why the leave the others alone?
We see the failures. Judgment withheld as youthful offender, arrested again within the year for doing the same thing.
They say only 14% in alternative programs were arrested again while in the program, but not how long the program is, what percent are arrested after leaving the program, how many are suspected but just not caught.
They say incarceration does not change the trajectory of their lives.
Does that mean 10% of those not incarcerated will also have close involuntary sexual encounters with guards?
Their lives follow the same course whether they are incarcerated or not?
Sometimes they do these things and spend NO time in jail???
Lots of interesting statements, all possibly true.
Supporting evidence would be appreciated
And not locking them up teaches them they can get away with it.
Now, every man, on his way to adulthood, has some “boy’ to work out of his system, some wildness, etc. I was the same, & I took some pretty hard knocks coming up. The kids nowadays need to go to the same school, not coddled like infants. I say let the punishment fit the crime, if a kid does a serious, adult type crime, like murder, etc., sure, lock him/her up. But separate those that get up to your usual teenage tomfoolery from the trash, like gang member activity, druggies, & so on.
Remember, the bleeding heart liberals would throw us all to the wolves, gunless, defenseless, naked & exposed. And never forget there is a section of the population that makes a living doing studies, like this one & others such as that global warming nonsense, from government funds, which we taxpayers foot the bill for. They do quite nicely, & they keep that well flowing by stirring up the general public, by way of playing on your emotions. Don’t buy into it. Oh yeah, that’s right, you already did, whether you like it or not, by paying your tax.
Maybe it’s just that a large number of those who are on track become adult criminals just end up getting caught for the first time when they are young.
Some people are just born bad….like an extra chromosome is thrown in at birth,there is NOTHING that will deter this persons outcome in life…save being locked away.You can’t change animal instinct ……
Re to Haley, very well said. I would like to add this. The youth of today are more troublesome than any generation before them. Why? For starters they are given everything and earn for themselves…..nothing! We as parents spent our time taking them to every kind of involvement there is. Band practice, soccer, baseball, football, basketball, cheerleader practice and so on. Not being enough, we then gave them video games and every other device man could think of, the end result being a generation with an entitlement mentality. Entitled to be entertained, and given everything with no sacrifice, no work.
We did this while as a nation we drove God out of our public square and out of our private lives, demanding that those who proclaim Him be silenced.
Any questions?
I’m with Gary. I understand that not all parents are stellar examples, but most of us do a pretty good job of raising our kids. However, sometimes some of those kids make other decisions that we don’t approve of, and we still have to parent them through it. I have been blessed with 3 good kids and one that doesn’t always make the best decisions, but has a good heart. After she was arrested for smoking pot at school, I treated her like an inmate and had the same kind of rules at home for a month. (I work in a prison). She got the idea fairly quickly and learned to stay away from the stuff, at least while living at home with me. She’s on her own now, and doing fairly well, so maybe she got the point! Not all, or even most parents are to blame. Some are most definitely the problem!
Well, I somewhat agree with this study. But, what is the answer? What is sad is, kids cannot really be kids anymore. I don’t mean these kids who go around shooting guns just because they don’t like another person. I just mean things we did as kids -harmless things, are now considered crimes. For instance, the 5 year boy who used his finger to simulate a gun was arrested??????? The little boy that kissed the little girl on the cheek was charged with sexual assault? What? And yes, how do we fix the problem of guards sexually assaulting these juvies while in custody? I don’t have an answer. I just wonder if we could (which will never happen), bring back the way most of us “baby boomers” were raised. Our parents disciplined us, the state didnt. I mean healthy discipline -not abuse. We learned right from wrong. This business of everyone is a winner is bull….We don’t keep score in baseball games for little kids cause someone will get their feelings hurt? Let’s get back to reality. Not sure if there is an answer. I do know that the govt is too involved in our lives and the lives of our children.
“Lock up the parents” is a stupid comment. Not in all cases is it the parents fault. I am a white collar professional, married now for 18 years and have a 15 year old son who is out of control. We have tried everything since he was in pre-K to keep him straight.
He is very disrespectful, destructive, does nothing in school and is headed down the wrong path. His mother and I have tried beating his butt, restriction, and even stripped everything from his room except a bed, dresser and a bookshelf. As parents we have sought professional help, ADHD meds, more butt whippings and even positive reinforcement when behavior improves. Still is is getting worse.
So my wife and I don’t need to be locked up for lack of trying.
Some more of these college boys/girls telling us how to fix the world. If you want to stop or I should say slow down crime (You will never stop it) you need a deterrent. Moms and Dad’s need to whoop some butts and quit this nonsense of talking to them or better yet buying them a car. You need to make them afraid, which they are not now. So these college boys are telling us that we are on the wrong track, punishing these kids will lead to more crimes, so I guess we just let them (Kids) run their own show and hope for the best. I say no, if they mess up, don’t slap them on the hand as we do now. Make it a little hard on them and maybe they will learn a lesson, just maybe. We are too easy on criminals and that’s why our country is in the mess it is in now. We listen to these so call professionals that in my opinion have way too much school and no common sense. Over the years we have heard the college boys/girls say we should do this or that and more often than not they are wrong. Look at shape this country is in, The common sense blue collar working man/women didn’t mess this country up, the college boys/girls and their way out ways of thinking did. I tired of hearing their way of thinking only to see it cost us more money (Taxpayers) and the results are never what they say. The good LORD told us, Spare the rod/Spoil the child and we need to start listening to him. If you really want to slow down the criminals, start the chain gangs back up and use it as a deterrent, get all them criminals out of the air-condition jails and put them to work. Go back to the proven methods that work!!
Yeah I agree with paul, we need to have a jail, not a hotel with breakfast. I say bring back the chain-gang and hard labor. Let them know this is HELL on earth.
“A new report by a youth advocacy group”
Everybody has an agenda.. It has been known that jail is high school and prison is college for criminals.. That isn’t a reason to stop sending them there.. Harsher penalties, NO playground with weights or basketball and NO AC or heat..That’ll keep’em from wanting to go back.
Carolyn,
While I agree with your perspective on the juvies, I have seen enough of them make a turn around after having some good counseling and relationships with their teachers and counselors that I have to say, even if they are locked up, they do need support programs. If people can’t change, what’s the point? If even ONE changes, then the money will have been well spent. If they choose to continue to recidivate, then yes, lock them up permanently. I’m not a liberal, but we can’t just lock everybody up. The problems are much more than just afew issues in society. Most of the problem is the attitude that everybody else owes them something. If that can be changed, a lot of the behavior will too.
Hmmmm. . . . Interesting. I offer the theory that being delinquent – NOT locking them up – as juveniles make them more likely to be adult criminals. Afterall, (naturally) barking and chasing your tail makes you more likely to be a dog than just eating Kibbles-n-Bits, right?
I say lock the “parent” up!
Short of beating them or killing them, once convicted of serious crimes, what other choice is there? And when they do the serious crime they don’t need forty programs with unlimited money wasted further on them and their dreadful families.
And the more often their parents do not raise them and they are constantly released to roam freely on the streets the more likely that we will become victims.