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National Reports & Articles
Jailing Juveniles: The
Dangers of Incarcerating Youth in Adult Jails in America
A new report, “Jailing
Juveniles: The Dangers of Incarcerating Youth in Adult Jails in
America,” released by the Campaign for Youth Justice provides
a summary of the risks that youth face when incarcerated in adult
jails, facts and figures about how many youth are incarcerated in jails
nationwide, and a review of the limited federal and state laws
protecting youth in jails.
Every day in America, an average of 7,500 youth are incarcerated in
adult jails. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Act (JJDPA) has protected children in the justice system for more than
three decades. The original intent of the JJDPA was to
protect children from the dangers of adult jails by separating them
from adults and ultimately removing them from adult jails
altogether. Under the “Jail Removal” core
protection, youth cannot be detained in adult jails except in limited
exceptions and in those narrow circumstances the “Sight and
Sound Separation” core protection prohibits contact with
adults. However these protections do not apply to youth being
tried in the adult criminal system.
The report “Jailing Juveniles” shows how difficult
is it to keep children safe in adult jails. In fact, youth
have the highest suicide rates of all inmates in jails. Youth
are 36 times more likely to commit suicide in an adult jail than in a
juvenile detention facility, and 19 times more likely to commit suicide
in an adult jail than youth in the general population. Youth
in adult jails are also at great risk of physical and sexual
assault. Findings in the report document that 21% and 13% of
all substantiated victims of inmate-on-inmate sexual violence in jails
in 2005 and 2006 respectively, were youth under the age of 18
(surprisingly high since only 1% of jail inmates are juveniles).
Despite the long-standing federal protections and documented dangers of
placing children in adult jails, tens of thousands of youth
incarcerated every year in adult jails are not protected by the
JJDPA’s protections. Congress could
easily fix this problem by extending the protections of the Juvenile
Justice & Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) that disallow the
placement of children in adult jails to protect all children, no matter
what court they are in – juvenile or adult.
"Jailing
Juveniles" Report (PDF 10.5 MB)
To find out what you can do, download a "Jailing
Juveniles" National Take Action! Packet (PDF 396 KB)
Press Release - 7,500
Youth in Adult Jails (PDF 180 KB)
A Capital Offense: Youth
in DC's Adult Criminal Justice System and Strategies for Reform.
Recently, The Campaign for Youth
Justice undertook a study of the status of children prosecuted in the
adult criminal justice system in the District of Columbia. The report
highlights several key findings, such as:
- Children as young as 15 can be
prosecuted as adults, many without review by a judge or a court
hearing.
- Youth cannot be returned to the juvenile justice
system even if a judge
determines that a child could benefit from the rehabilitative services
in the juvenile justice system because the law does not provide a
“reverse” waiver mechanism.
- Youth prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system
are held in the
DC Jail, an adult facility run by the Department of Corrections where
there is a dearth of youth appropriate activities and programs. Only a
third of the youth attend school, and some youth can spend up to 23
½ hours a day locked in their cells.
- Those youth who are sentenced to incarceration come
under the custody
of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and are typically placed in
facilities hundreds of miles from home, including states as far as
Tennessee, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.
- Youth are not eligible for the expanded
rehabilitative services
provided by the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services’
(DYRS) under new comprehensive reform legislation, the Omnibus Juvenile
Justice Amendment Act of 2004 (D.C. Law 15-261), approved by the DC
Council.
The report calls for the end of pre-trial placement of youth in the DC
Jail. The report urges policy makers to consider key
recommendations that include; Requiring that all transfer cases be
decided by a judge; Provide a “reverse” waiver
mechanism for youth in adult court; Encourage the Federal Bureau of
Prisons to contract with the Department of Youth Rehabilitative
Services and; to collect and analyze data on youth tried and sentenced
as adults on an on-going basis. Click below to
download the full report.
A
Capital Offense (PDF 416 KB)
The Consequences
Aren’t Minor: The Impact of Trying Youth as Adults and
Strategies for Reform.
This study examines the laws and data in seven key states: California,
Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Virginia, andWisconsin.
An estimated 200,000 youth end up in the adult system each year, and 40
states allow or require the jailing of these youth in adult facilities
before they ever go to trial.
Youth prosecuted as adults are often held in adult jails for months or
years, even though, as the report demonstrates, most are charged with
nonviolent offenses. For example, in Chicago, a 17-year-old boy was
arrested for “armed robbery” after he took a
schoolmate’s gym clothes, and was detained at the Cook County
jail for several weeks.
Of the 8,000 young people who enter Connecticut’s adult court
system, the vast majority are arrested for non-violent offenses.
Research—including studies funded by the U.S. Justice
Department—show that sending youth to the adult criminal
justice system doesn't work to reduce crime. Jails are not designed to
safely hold youth, who are either incarcerated in cells with adults, or
separated in forms of isolation that can lead to depression or even
suicide. Studies show that youth who are incarcerated in adult
facilities are more likely to suffer abuse, become mentally ill, and
may be rearrested and commit more serious offenses than youth who
benefit from the treatment, counseling and services available through
the juvenile justice system. A recent Zogby poll conducted for the
National Council on Crime and Delinquency finds that 7 in 10
respondents felt that putting youth under age 18 in adult correctional
facilities makes them more likely to commit future crime.
The laws are not evenly applied, with youth of color and those without
access to adequate legal counsel more likely to end up in adult
correctional facilities. Nationwide, three out of four young people
admitted to adult prison in 2002 were youth of color. In
Florida,Wisconsin, California, Connecticut, Illinois and North
Carolina, youth of color represented nearly or more than 7 out of 10
youth in the adult justice system.
The report notes that juvenile judges are frequently excluded from the
decision to prosecute youth as adults. Instead, prosecutors and state
laws determine which youth end up in the adult system, no matter how
minor the nature of the offense. In 15 states, prosecutors rather than
judges have the discretion to send youth to the adult system. In other
states, laws are allowing for the automatic transfer of youth based on
the nature of the charge or a lowered statutory age limit.
The report urges policy makers to take advantage of the shift in public
opinion and the new adolescent brain development research that inspired
the Supreme Court to end the death penalty for minors. The report calls
for a ban on the incarceration of youth in adult jails or prisons, and
in the rare cases where the seriousness of a crime warrants
consideration of prosecution in the adult system, a juvenile court
judge should make the decision rather than prosecutors or state
law. Click below to download the full report.
The Campaign for Youth Justice is committed to providing you with the
most recent, reliable and relevant research on the issue of
transfer/waiver of youth to the adult criminal court, the
adultification of youth, and alternative approaches to youth justice
that are fair and effective.
Looking for a local parent group to get connected with? Please see our list of organizations
that may have a chapter in your community.
The following resources may be
helpful to you:
Childhood on Trial: The Failure of Trying and Sentencing Youth in Adult
Criminal Court. Wolfson, J., Washington, DC: Coalition for Juvenile
Justice, 2005.
Full Report
Childhood on Trial (PDF 448 KB)
A study
conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention task force
has found that teens that are transferred to the adult justice system
are 34 percent more likely to be arrested again. Click below to view
Medicial
Review finds laws allowing youth tried as adults ineffective at
imporoving publica safety, and associated with increased violence (72
KB)
Effects
on Violence of Laws and Policies Facilitating the Transfer of Juveniles
from the Juvenile Justice System to the Adult Justice System (PDF 588
KB)
Recommendation
Against Policies Facilitating the Transfer of Juveniles from Juvenile
to Adult Justice Systems for the Purpose of Reducing Violence (PDF 40
KB)
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