Humane Exposures Blog

The fight to fix our juvenile justice system just got a shot in the arm. Yesterday the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced a new partnership supporting innovative and effective reforms in treatment and services for youth involved in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems.

A total of $2 million, $1 million from each partner, over the next two years will help fund the reform efforts of the following four organizations:

• The National Youth Screening and Assessment Project at the University of Massachusetts Medical School
• The National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice at Policy Research, Inc.
• The Center for Children’s Law and Policy
• The Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps

‘We need to do what’s right for America’s children,’ said Melodee Hanes, Acting Administrator of OJJDP. ‘This partnership supports state and community efforts to protect youth from harm, hold them accountable for their actions, provide for rehabilitation and improve public safety.  In this tight economy, creatively partnering with a private organization such as MacArthur maximizes reform, while stretching limited public dollars.’

This week a Supreme Court judge in Georgia put forth her thoughts on why the state’s justice system desperately needs fixing. Let’s start with the pertinent quotes as reported by James Swift at the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange:

At Wednesday’s annual State of the Judiciary Address, Georgia’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein urged lawmakers to overhaul the state’s juvenile justice system, asking legislators to support more rehabilitative services for youth as opposed to incarceration of juvenile offenders.

‘The same reforms we are recommending to you for adults must begin with children,’ Hunstein said. ‘If we simply throw low-risk offenders into prison, rather than holding them accountable for their wrongdoing while addressing the source of their criminal behavior, they merely become hardened criminals who are more likely to reoffend when they are released.’

Citing Department of Juvenile Justice statistics she pointed out that nearly two-thirds of the roughly 10,000 incarcerated youth in Georgia suffer from substance abuse issues. A full one-third of them have mental health problems as well.

Hunstein pointed out that state budget cutbacks have drastically reduced services for many mental health and child welfare programs. As a judge she says that this puts juvenile judges in a position sending youth into incarceration “or nothing at all.” These same budget cuts are creating a backlog of court cases which has a distinct possibility of impeding the progress of cases across the state, both juvenile and otherwise.

John Lash also addresses this in his own column, also on the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange,

As budgets continue to fall, not just in Georgia, but around the nation, governments are being forced to face facts. Rhetoric and popular appeals to the conservative base worked as long as there was money to pay for tough laws, but now it is time to pay for the outcome of such talk, and to hopefully put solutions in place that not only better serve non- violent, mentally- ill, and addictive- youth, but also serve society as a whole, not only fiscally, but also by reducing future criminal activity.

We will see these kids again. What state they are in when that happens is largely dependent on how they are treated now.

Indeed, let us hope that when we do see them we have made the right decisions.

The Internet is definitely the way to share information, and these days that means social media.

As we attempt to educate people about the three major social ills that our society faces – Homelessness, Women in Prison, and a broken Juvenile Justice system – HumaneExposures is spreading our reach across the web.

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We believe in interacting with our reader on the platform of their choice, hence our embrace of these differing services. With election season looming we need to make sure that as many people as possible are mobilized and informed about the sort of legislation required to fix our broken society.

An emphasis on rehabilitation and re-integration into society is proven to be effective whether the subject is a youth offender or a homeless veteran. It is only by addressing these root causes that we will be in a position to effect real and lasting change.

If you agree with our stance please help us get things rolling by sharing these with your friends. As always, if you have story leads or information on other social justice oriented groups we would love to hear about them, use any platform you like!

Over the past ten years California has reduced the number of incarcerated youths to just over one tenth of what it was in the mid-1990s. Eight of the eleven state run facilities have been shut down in that time, responsibility for non-violent youth offenders now resting at the county level, and hopefully closer to family and community support.

Now Gov. Jerry Brown want to phase out the last three facilities. Facilities that house more serious offenders- 1,100 of them to be exact.

This unattributed editorial from the New York Times shines some light on the path from the mid-90s to the present day:

The California juvenile justice system has a long history of abuses. A 2004 court ruling that required the state to improve services and facilities pushed up costs. Beginning in 2007, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger began to downsize the system after the Legislature passed a law barring counties from sending nonviolent youths to state facilities. California did it the right way: providing generous financing to the counties for therapeutically based juvenile offender programs. Spending on the system has dropped by almost half, from nearly $500 million to about $245 million as crime rates dropped over all, and the state has cut its juvenile inmate population from about 10,000 in the mid-1990s to about 1,100 today.

Critics of the proposed closures point out that without state run facilities courts may well be tempted to try more teenagers in adult courts. If these last three centers get closed we can be sure that legislative oversight will be required in order to monitor for over-prosecution.

Some supporters of the plan worry that certain counties may lack secure facilities to hold juveniles convicted of arson, robbery and other serious crimes and the therapeutic know how to succeed with these young people.

Implementation is key. The way that the closures are handled and the provisions made for the youths being returned to county management will determine a lot of the details as things shake out.

What do you think about the potential closings? Are you for it or against it, and if so why? Let us know, it’s as easy as leaving a comment.

Image Source: Colin K. on Flickr, used under it’s Creative Commons license

Florida’s youth-corrections system is so poorly administered that children are assaulted by officers, denied necessary medical care and punished harshly for minor infractions, a federal report released Friday concludes.

Conditions are so severe, the U.S. Department of Justice said, that they violate the Constitution.

So begins Carol Marbin Miller’s article in The Miami Herald last Friday about the blistering report handed down by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. 28 pages that detail the horrible conditions experience by those incarcerated at Florida’s Dozier School for Boys and the Jackson Juvenile Offender Center. While both of these facilities were closed earlier this year the report states that similar conditions are likely common in other state youth prisons. The reasoning? The state’s “failed system of oversight and accountability”.

We see these stories in the news far too often. Just last July the death of Eric Perez, 18, at the Palm Beach County detention center was in the news. If any of the multiple guards and administrators who heard his pleas for medical attention had listened he might still be with us.

Suicidal youths are put in isolation. Others are discouraged from seeking medical attention, many times because what needs attention is an injury inflicted by the staff. Isolation and confinement are often used as punishment despite the fact that experts discourage it in all non-emergency situations. The list goes on and on, often involving different permutations of unneccessary or excessive force.

“These conditions return youth to the community no better — and likely less-equipped to succeed than when they were first incarcerated,” Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez wrote in a Dec. 1 letter to Gov. Rick Scott, adding that such practices “erode public confidence in the juvenile justice system and interfere with the state’s efforts to reduce crime.”

While Perez’ words are strong and voice valid concerns there is no intimation that either the Justice Department or Perez himself will seek further action. That is the truly disappointing facet of this otherwise

 Image Source: Conner395 on Flickr, used under it’s Creative Commons license

The United States incarcerates 25% of the world’s prisoners, which is disturbing since we only account for 5% of the planet’s total population. It’s a number which should make you sit up and take notice.

One of the largest factors behind this statistic is the privatized prison, something that did not exist before 1984. It was in that year that the Corrections Corporation of America received a contract to operate a public jail in Hamilton County, TN, the nation’s first-ever private prison was born.

The American Civil Liberties Union just released a study examining the history of prison privatization – Banking on Bondage: Mass Incarceration and Private Prisons – which clearly demonstrates how corporate profit seeking has caused our prison populations to explode.

Rania Khalek has a brilliant condensed version of the report’s findings on AlterNet, replete with useful documentation and links. I highly advise taking a few moments to read the whole thing, it is more than worth your time. Right now we will have to settle for an excerpt concerning how this privatization impact juvenile justice:

There is no clearer example of dangers associated mixing profit-making and juvenile rehabilitation than the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (WGYCF) operated by the GEO Group in Mississippi.  WGYCF, which has been called “the deepest depths of hell,” is the nation’s largest juvenile prison. It houses 1,200 young males between the ages of 13 and 22, 67 percent of whom are incarcerated for non-violent offenses.  The facility was originally established by the Mississippi state legislature to create a safe environment for juveniles charged as adults by keeping them separate from the cruel and harsh conditions often found in adult prisons.

Unfortunately, that mission is incompatible with the priorities of the for-profit prison industry. As it turns out, conditions at WGYCF are so atrocious that the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center have teamed up to file a class-action lawsuit on behalf the inmates against the prison operator (GEO Group), prison administrators, and state officials.

The complaint alleges, “The for-profit entities that manage WGYCF perpetuate violence and corruption.”  More specifically, youth have been kicked and punched while handcuffed, others stripped naked and confined to solitary for weeks at a time.  Another inmate was “held hostage in his cell for almost 24 hours, brutally raped and physically assaulted after prison staff failed to heed his plea for protection.”  Another lives with permanent brain damage after suffering multiple stabbings and beatings that prison staff are described as having been complicit in.

On the other side of the political aisle similar concerns are being raised by Fox News, which looks at the statements to this effect by the corrections companies themselves:

Corrections Corporation of America (CXW), the industry leader based in Nashville, Tenn., with more than $1.7 billion in 2010 annual revenues and capacity for more than 90,000 prisoners, said a drop in tough criminal sentences means a drop in revenues. According to its 2010 annual report:

‘Demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices, or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws.’ […]

‘Any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them,’ the company’s annual report said.

Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO Group Inc. (GEO), in the industry’s No. 2 spot with nearly $1.3 billion in 2010 annual revenues and capacity for 81,000 prisoners, offers similar language in its 2010 annual report: ‘A decrease in our occupancy rates could cause a decrease in revenues and profitability.’

When Fox and AlterNet agree it’s worth paying attention. For private companies keeping the prisons filled is their financial bottom line, one that should never be allowed to trump the lives wasted within their walls. The money motive is so strong that their approach continues to remain dominant despite reams of evidence that rehabilitation is cheaper and more effective.

For these companies the safety of our streets does not even enter into the equation. It’s all about the profit margin.

Image Source: 401K on Flickr, used under it’s Creative Commons license

A juvenile court judge in Vinton County, Ohio recently penned a guest column in The Cincinnati Enquirer. The topic? YouthBuild.

If you are unfamiliar with the group, YouthBuild is a national youth and community development program that works with 16-24 year old, low income youths. Education is the baseline of their efforts, a vital topic in the modern day. Youngsters work toward their GEDs or high school diplomas, learn job skills while serving their communities by building affordable housing.

YouthBuild boasts 273 programs across the country. 21,000 units of affordable housing have been built since 1994 by 110,000 participants in the program. Now almost half of those programs across the U.S., 121 of them to be exact, have just lost their primary funding due to Department of Labor cuts.

Education is vital, it is one of the most important subjects on the table in modern society. Judge Grillo wrote a much needed call to arms about the direct correlation between education and quality of life:

Here in Southeastern Ohio, young people without a diploma, skills or GED have little to no hope for becoming useful adults. We have a population of young people without skills going on the dole, becoming takers rather than givers. Without an education our young people are just drifting, and as a judge, I know that society pays a high price.

I’ve seen young people who have committed serious crimes straighten themselves up through YouthBuild.

And I see young parents breaking a cycle of poverty by getting training and building a future for their families. One young woman got pregnant at 15 and struggled to stay in school after her daughter was born. She eventually dropped out and tried homeschooling, but nothing stuck until she enrolled in YouthBuild. Now 19 and head of her household, she has graduated from high school, completed nurse’s aide training and is enrolled at a state university.

While Southeastern Ohio is in a bind they are not alone. 121 Youthbuild Programs nation wide have just lost funding. Another victim of the drive to make short term savings shortchanging our future. Judge Grillo sums it up nicely:

Cutting funding for YouthBuild is short-sighted. We should be front-loading the social services system with educational opportunities and hope instead of back-loading it, only providing services when people fail and have nowhere else to turn.

Programs like YouthBuild are major weapons in the battle for juvenile justice. The combination of education and job skill training can be a potent weapon against the allure of crime. Additionally, it is far less expensive to taxpayers in the long run to focus on preventative and rehabilitative measures such as these.

It’s all about the future. Will we help the next generation realize their potential or will be allow their opportunities to recede into the distance.

As William Butler Yeats once said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

Image Source: YouthBuild Philly

One of the wonderful things about writing this blog is that it addresses core issues  that both liberals and conservatives can agree on. Our juvenile justice system has become an expensive behemoth of questionable use – this has been proven by studies on both sides of the political aisle. 

Unfortunately today’s political climate of hyperbole and vitriol is not conducive to actually seeing that this common ground exists. Crusading for reform of the juvenile justice system is too often viewed as a purely liberal ideal. Even so, there are conservative organizations that want a transition to non-incarceration based treatments as well. It’s simple good sense because they are vastly more effective and substantially less expensive to the taxpayers. Whether the stated goal is humanitarian or fiscally based the path to reaching it is the same.

One conservative group in Texas, Right on Crime, has taken on what is usually considered a classic liberal position as we approach the tumultuous election season of 2012. James Swift, a writer for the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, brings us some details on the group and it’s goals:

The motto displayed on the Right On Crime website reads ‘fighting crime, prioritizing victims, and protecting taxpayers,’ a creed which [Marc A.] Levin [Director of The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Effective Justice] reiterated when he said the organization’s primary aspirations are to ‘promote public safety, and also to do so in a cost-effective manner.’ He also said the organization promotes ‘a focus on rehabilitation of youth and adults,’ who he believes can ‘be put on a path to be productive citizens and positive contributors to our society.’

‘Obviously, there have been some conservatives who, historically, have taken a ‘lock ‘em up and throw away the key’ approach,’ Levin said. ‘But crime has been declining in the United States for 17 years in a row.’

Levin said that his organization advocates evidence-based practices and discourages incarceration ‘when it is not necessary.’

‘If you incarcerate someone, it’s almost guaranteed they won’t be paying restitutions,’ he continued. ‘They won’t be paying child support, and they’re obviously not going to earn any income.’

‘Incarceration is necessary in some cases,’ Levin stated, ‘but a lot of times, it’s a child welfare issue.’

Right On Crime will hopefully be coming soon to a state near you.  The group is currently finding ways to expand it’s reach into other states. For one example they will be working closely with the  Georgia Public Policy Foundation to raise awareness and interest in reforming juvenile justice policies within the state over the next year. They are also reviewing a number of proposals from Washington, DC and possible legislation in California.

These are not conservative or liberal issues, they are human issues. In the midst of the ideological divisiveness our nation currently suffers this is the one clear ground where both sides want the same things, based on the same evidence. What better way to come together than to build a better future for our youth and their communities?