Jack & Jill Politics

Today’s topic is the “justice” system we have in place for children. It is a topic of particular concern to me because I recently became the grandmother of an African-American male. If things continue on their current trajectory and my grandson continues living in the United States he will have a 1 in 3 chance of being ensnared by the criminal justice system at some point in his life. One in THREE!! Those odds are not acceptable to me. Even if he is able to avoid the clutches of the police what will it mean for him to live in a community where a third of the men have been criminalized?

Lately, there’s been increased scrutiny of the role of drug law enforcement in fueling the phenomenon of mass incarceration in the U.S. Most of the focus has been on the adult prison system which has grown dramatically at both the federal and state level. Less attention has been given to the juvenile justice system which tends to operate in the background of the justice system. As of 2008, more than 90,000 youth were being held in juvenile detention facilities throughout the country.

Juvenile Courts were created in the early 20th century on the philosophy that children are inherently different from adults and should be treated differently than adults who come in conflict with the law. It is the state’s responsibility to protect and rehabilitate young people with behavioral problems. As a general rule, juvenile courts handle cases of delinquency and dependency. Delinquency refers to crimes committed by minors, and dependency includes cases where a non-parent is chosen to care for a minor when their parent is unwilling or unable to provide adequate care (e.g. runaways, habitual truants). The following 1940 documentary produced by the National Probation Association was designed to demonstrate how this approach worked in practice:

I debated whether to include the 1940 video – it is dated and longer than most folks would like but I decided to do so for two basic reasons:

1. To illustrate how far we’ve come from an the child-centered approach set forth. Seventy years later we’re more likely to treat a kid who steals a car like a felon and lock him/her up for it than view it as an opportunity for positive intervention;
2. The methods and approaches to dealing with troubled youth advocated by the Probation Association in this documentary are many of the same approaches and methods being advocated by criminal justice professionals and child welfare advocates today.

As noted in a recent report by the Justice Policy Institute entitled, Finding Direction: Expanding Criminal Justice Options by Considering Policies of Other Nations – Juvenile Justice Fact Sheet, April 2011:

Although the United States founded juvenile court and promoted it as a model for other nations, the principles of rehabilitation and age-appropriate responses that guided it have been severely eroded – this is reflected in the number of youth held in secure facilities, tried as adults, held in adult jails, and given life without parole sentences. Depending on the state, youth as young as six can be held criminally responsible and tried in adult criminal courts in the U.S. U.S. policy tends to first find fault in the youth for committing a crime, while other nations tend to ask why the crime was committed and what services can and should be provided to help the young person have more positive life outcomes. Our use of harsh sanctions against youth engaging in unlawful or delinquent behavior clearly demonstrates that the primary motive of the current U.S. juvenile justice system is to punish young people – especially poor minority youth – rather than to help them.

Part of what makes children inherently different from adults within the context of the justice system is the reality that they are still developing – mentally, physically and socially. In rendering judgment it cases involving minors, courts should consider the personal circumstances including level of maturity, education and mental health of the youth involved. The degree to which this is done varies by jurisdiction, both domestically and internationally. The evidence is overwhelming that treatment, as well as mental health and other supportive services yield positive benefits for youth and society including better educational outcomes, increased productivity and enhanced public safety.

Unfortunately, juvenile justice is another concept – like rehabilitation – that’s fallen victim to the profit motive that dominates the prison industrial complex. Last year two judges in Pennsylvania were prosecuted and sent to prison when it was uncovered they had colluded with a private juvenile detention facility to remand kids to their facilities (for even really minor offenses) in exchange for kickbacks. The scheme dubbed ‘kids for cash’ netted more than 1.5 million for one judge and generated outrage from one local mother whose son committed suicide after his wrongful incarceration.

Despite the heated rhetoric that characterizes most conversations about youth crime and violence – we really don’t have a commitment to protecting youth and facilitating their ability to lead happy and productive lives. The promises made during every election season about prioritizing youth as a way of “securing our future” are rarely backed up by resources and certainly not reflected in our public policies.

Of all the conversations we are willing to have regarding young people and how to fix them, the one conversation we seem UNWILLING to have is how institutional racism – particularly with regard to law enforcement – operates to insure that too many Black and Latino youth are relegated to a permanent underclass marked by low educational achievement, chronic unemployment, poor health and personal instability. The following discussion about the impact of drug law enforcement on minority youth in Baltimore is a notable exception:

In many cities young people have become the effective advocates for juvenile justice reform. The following highlights ongoing campaigns led by youth making the case for EDUCATION NOT INCARCERATION!!

I’m happy to report a promising shift to improve outcomes for youth in conflict with the law. Many states are moving away from large institutional state detention facilities towards smaller, county-based campuses that look more like homes than prisons and focus on education and rehabilitation as opposed to punishment. Missouri is one such state, it began by investing in community-based alternatives to incarceration for youth and then changed the philosophy and operation of its long-term secure confinement facilities to provide counseling and education in a more home-like setting. In 2006, Missouri’s recidivism rate was 8.7 percent, lower than most other states. Another jurisdiction that’s seen a remarkable turn-around in its juvenile justice system is the District of Columbia. Led by my friend and colleague Vinnie Schiraldi, the system has made great strides in improving conditions and outcomes for the young people they serve. Both provide models of serving children in need in ways that prepare them for the lives they will lead with their families and communities as opposed to being “head start for prison”.

We need to remember – PRISONS ARE NO PLACE FOR CHILDREN!!