Reforming the Ways We Reform Youth
Author: Jasmine Cousins
Imagine being twelve years old, locked away in your room twenty-three out of the twenty-four hours a day! This isn’t just your room but a 6x9 foot off-white cement room with only a cot, blanket, pillow, metal toilet, and sink. You are miles from home and family, and it seems that overnight you went from being a typical twelve-year-old to being locked away like an animal. This is the situation many delinquent youths in America have found themselves in. They have been ripped away from the most valuable asset during their developmental years—SUPPORT.
The current juvenile justice system handles youth as “mini adult prisoners.” However, we should employ positive interventions when working with these youth to improve their lives rather than one punishment after the next, creating an endless revolving door with the justice system. The American juvenile justice system needs serious reform!
According to youth.gov (an interagency group working on planning, implementing, and supporting effective programs for youth), in a single year, 2.1 million juveniles age eighteen and younger are arrested in the United States, with 1.7 million arrestees making their way to juvenile courts. The charges against them range from persons, property, and public order offenses to drug violations and truancy. These offenses potentially expose them to abuse, trauma, detention overpopulation, and the development of mental health problems. An estimated 57 percent of legally declared delinquent youth are placed on probation, and 86,900 under twenty-one are placed in public or private detention centers, homes, or other correctional institutions (youth.gov). Minority youth are overrepresented in the juvenile justice system, with juvenile females becoming a vastly emerging new population.
Youth tend to be caught up in the legal system due to environmental and predisposing factors. The top five risk factors shown to increase the chance of engaging in criminal behavior include:
Youth with parents engaging in criminal behavior;
Youth who spend time with or around delinquent peers;
Youth coming from broken homes;
Youth dealing with mental illness; and
Youth from lower socioeconomic communities (Burton & Marshall, 2005).
These risk factors are not definitive of youth becoming offenders, but they increase the chance of going down the wrong path. Protective factors, such as having a supportive family or community and being socially interactive, help youth stay on a positive track.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) found that youth is 55 percent more likely to re-offend within one year across various states. This means half of those youth dealing with the justice system will become entangled in a never-ending cycle of reoffending and incarceration.
The call for juvenile justice reform has existed since the system’s establishment. The United States has yet to master best practices in dealing with delinquent youth. Over the years, we have seen improvements within the system, such as juveniles being allowed the same rights as their adult counterparts, except for a jury. Still, we have also seen downsides, such as the court’s ability to determine a judicial waiver, a transfer from juvenile to adult criminal court based on the severity of crimes, or at the judge’s discretion (May, Osmond, & Billick, 2014). The original call for judicial waivers stemmed from victims’ families feeling improper justice was served when the offender was a juvenile, only receiving what felt like a “slap on the wrist” for heinous crimes such as sexual assault or homicide. However, these good intentions in the name of justice have had unforeseeable consequences when placed in adult prisons, resulting in a “more experienced criminal” upon their release from a teaching environment of wrongdoing by older, more advanced criminals (May et al., 2014). Other costly effects of placing youth with adult criminals are exposure to possible abuse and decreased mental well-being. These attempts to put away and punish youth for their wrongful behavior could be doing more damage than good.
According to the Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ), youth having at least one supportive adult throughout this process, even when reoffending occurs, has shown unbelievably positive changes among juvenile offenders. In some cases, having someone who does not give up on them has been a critical factor missing in their lives and the juvenile justice system. This has led to the need to move more towards multisystemic therapeutic approaches to offer a productive way to transform these youth. The juvenile justice system must recognize tending to youth should involve several systems working together to include mental health, substance use treatment programs, child welfare, social services, and other community intervention programs for both the youth and family (Cocozza, Veysey, Chapin, Dembo, Walter, & Farina, 2005). More resources could be put toward diversion programs and interventions. Data has shown keeping youth in the community and adding intensive versions of these programs has led to a significant decrease in recidivism among youth, even when reoffending has occurred. A multisystemic therapy approach has been less severe on individuals than those incarcerated and released (May et al., 2014).
Benefits of a Multisystemic Therapy approach (MST):
Participants have shown 22 percent lower recidivism rates;
MST has no universal treatment plan allowing for the unique development of a plan to cater to the offender, family, school, and specific problem behavior;
Focuses on factors that have fueled the juvenile’s delinquent behavior (ex., family, peers, environment); and
A decrease in delinquent associations and increased family support through communication and guided problem-solving.
Youth who have participated in MST programs have reported an appreciation for the intervention’s non-blaming nature and feel their families developed more support. This has created a better line of communication among the immediate family (May et al., 2014). In addition to a decrease in the youth’s negative behaviors, these families have noted the development of a better sense of self in the youth, a better understanding of the youth and how they can impact their future, and the youth’s ability to hold themselves accountable (May et al., 2014). Although many studies have shown the positive outcomes of MST and other programs like it, wide implementation has faced backlash for the higher cost and the ease of its counterpart’s dealing with delinquent youth. Because of this data, other forms of dealing with juvenile offenders render better results than locking them away.
Many groups and organizations are working towards juvenile justice reform. Their involvement has included policy and legislative change proposals, former juvenile offenders working side-by-side with policymakers, and various advocacy groups supporting youths’ families. Young offenders of today could become the adult offenders of tomorrow, so proper treatment within the juvenile justice system can better impact society and offer a better chance for a youth who has lost their way to return on a positive path.
References
Burton, J. M., & Marshall, L. A. (2005). Protective factors for youth considered at risk of criminal behaviour: Does participation in extracurricular activities help? Criminal Behaviour & mental Health, 15(1), 46-64.
Cocozza, J. J., Veysey, B. M., Chapin, D. A., Dembo, R., Walters, W., & Farina, S. (2005). Diversion from the Juvenile Justice System: The Miami-Dade Juvenile Assessment Center Post-Arrest Diversion Program. Substance Use & Misuse, 40(7), 935-951.
Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs - Youth.gov
May, J. P., Osmond, K., & Billick, S. (2014). Juvenile Delinquency Treatment and Prevention: A Literature Review. Psychiatry Quarterly, 85(3), 295-301.
Ashleigh Diserio Consulting is a behavioral consulting firm that works with individuals and organizations, assisting them in gleaning insight into a person's life, motivation, and past and future behavior. We provide services in the areas of criminal and intelligence investigations, management support, threat assessment, insider threat support, and training.