Alternative Justice for Youth

1. Alternative Justice for Youth Jennifer Fuller Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service New York, New York Social Work and the Law Professor Maschi April 15, 2014

2. Problem Backgroud • 250,000 youth are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults every year • More than 1 in 10 youth experience sexual abuse within 12 months of admission • While the number of incarcerated youths in adult prison is 1% of the total population, 21% of all reported sexual victimized cases in 2005 were youth. • A survey of adult facilities found that 40% of jails provided no educational services at all, only 11% provided special education services, and a mere 7% provided vocational training. • Many children are often placed in isolation which can produce harmful consequences, including death. Youth are frequently locked down 23 hours a day in small cells with no natural light. These conditions can cause anxiety, paranoia, and exacerbate existing mental disorders and put youth at risk of suicide. … Youth housed in adult jails are 36 times more likely to commit suicide than are youth housed in juvenile detention facilities • Incarcerating young people in juvenile detention facilities costs between $32,000 and $65,000 per year, and operating just one bed over a twenty year period can cost between $1.25 million and $1.5 million. Early interventions that prevent high-risk youth from engaging in repeat criminal offenses can save the public nearly $5.7 million in costs over a lifetime

3. Case Vignette • Consider the case of Robert Smith. He was raised in an upper middle class home in a wealthy town in the suburbs of Connecticut. When he was 11 he began to commit small crimes such as shoplifting. At age 13 he began smoking cigarettes and experimenting with marijuana and alcohol. When he was 14 he was detained and put into the juvenile system for shoplifting. Upon release he continued to drink more heavily and experiment with other drugs such as cocaine. When he was 16 he was put back into the juvenile court system for vandalism. At age 17 he was incarcerated for stealing a car. At age 19 he was incarcerated for robbery. His family is very involved in trying to keep him out of jail. However, Robert declines any type of treatment at this time. Had there been early intervention within his community rather than being incarcerated for a non-violent crime things may have been different for him.

4. Theory/Perspective • Systems Theory • Attachment Theory • Object Relations Theory • Moral Relations Theory

5. United Nations Document • Universal Declaration of Human Rights – education, safety • Declaration on the Rights of the Child – education, safety, protection from sexual abuse

6. Federal and State Policy • Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 • “This law began the deinstitutionalization of status offenders and non-offenders requires youth who are runaways, truants or curfew violators cannot be detained in juvenile detention facilities or adult jails. … The ‘sight and south’ separation protection disallows contact between juvenile and adult offenders. If juveniles are put in an adult jail or lock up… they must be separated from adult inmates. The ‘jail removal’ disallows the placement of youth in adult jails and lock ups except under very limited circumstances. The Disproportionate Minority Confinement provision requires states to address the issue of over representation of youth of color in the justice system”

7. Prevention and Intervention Strategies

8. Promising Practice • “State and local courts and corrections systems should invest in and substantially expand access to intensive and high-quality alternatives to incarceration such as: Evidence based family intervention models like Multisystemic Therapy, Functional Family Therapy, and Multidementional Treatment Foster Care. … Rigorous career preparation and vocational training programs… Intensive youth advocate and mentoring programs… Cognitive behavioral skills training… Specialized mental health and substance abuse treatment models that have shown significant success in helping lower offending rates and improve youths’ behavior.”

9. Levels of Oppression • Personal- Decreases risk of lower education, and higher risk of sexual abuse, experiencing isolation opposed to being able to socially develop, or risk of developing mental illness such as depression, anxiety, or posttraumatic stress disorder. • Cultural- Increase access to education since there will be less children experiencing lack of access to education due to detainment or incarceration. There will also be less sexual abuse for children in prisons since fewer children will be in that environment. • Structural- Decrease the overpopulation of incarcerated and detained individuals because there will be an increase in handling non-violent criminal situations within the community rather than in the juvenile and prison systems. It will also change the way that crime is handled. Rather than having children be automatically detained, and having non-violent crimes lead to incarceration, it will be handled within the community among the individuals involved, their families, and local agencies.

10. Engagement and Collaboration • Restorative justice utilizes family therapy through use of community agencies to correct any wrong doing between the victim and perpetrator. • It also involves engagement with the community through alternative justice such as community service. • Interprofessional collaboration is utilized in this intervention through workers at local agencies such as social workers and therapists, as well as through the criminal justice system such as lawyers.

11. Evidence • “Youth who are imprisoned have higher recidivism rates than youths who remain in communities, both due to suspended opportunities for education and a disruption in the process that normally allows for youth to ‘age-out’ of crime” • “Ten years of data on incarceration and crime trends show that states that increased the number of youth in juvenile facilities did not necessarily experience a decrease in crime during the same time period. The most effective programs at reducing recidivism rates and promoting positive life outcomes for youth are administered in the community, outside of the criminal or juvenile systems. Some of these programs have been shown to reduce recidivism by up to 22 percent”

12. Prevention • Education- by keeping youths in the community they will have access to education • Sexual abuse- By keeping youths in the community they will have a lower risk of experiencing sexual abuse • Isolation- Social development, lower risk of suicide, • Recidivism- Allow youths to outgrow committing crimes, learn from their mistakes, etc.

13. Policy Reform • Change so that non-violent crimes do not lead to detainment or incarceration then positive change could occur in the lives of children nationwide. • After policies are adjusted to allow for change, advocacy is still vital to stand up for children who might fall on a borderline of being detained or not.

14. Recommendations • Advocate for more programs to be put in place within the community to allow more opportunity for alternatives to criminal justice. • Increase awareness of risks and negative impacts that incarceration and detainment can have on youths

15. Helpful Resources • FAVOR • Center for Children’s Advocacy • Connecticut Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities • Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance • PACER

16. References • Friedman, B., & Allen, K. N. (2011). Theory & practice in clinical social work. (2nd ed., pp. 3- • 18). Wayne State University: SAGE Publications Inc. Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/32947_Chapter1.pdfPage, T., & Norwood, R. (2007). Advances in social work. Attachment Theory and the Social Work Cirriculum, 8(1), 30-48. Retrieved from https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/advancesinsocialwork/article/ • download/130/121&sa=U&ei=iZZBU9GjFJS_sQT_vYL4BA&ved=0CDMQFjAD&usg • =AFQjCNGnjY2sqTU GCNEr9-0iIFFohMNK4g • Object relations theory. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_relations_theory • Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Kohlberg's_stages_of_moral_development • Williams M.D., J., Franks Ph.D, R. P., & Dore Ph.D, M. (n.d.). The Connecticut juvenile justice • system: A guide for youth and families. Connecticut Center for Effective Practice. Retrieved from http://www.chdi.org/juvenilejusticeguide • United Nations. (1989). The Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved from http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx

17. References • United Nations. (2009). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/#atop • Campaign for Youth Justice. (2012, April). Key facts: Youth in the justice system. Retrieved from http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/KeyYouthCrimeFacts.pdf • Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juvenile_Justice_and_Delinquency_Prevention_Act • Burke, K.S. (2013). An inventory and examination of restorative justice practices for youth in Illinois. Chicago, IL: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. Retrieved from http://www.icjia.state.il.us/public/pdf/researchreports/inventoryandexaminationofrestorati vejusticepracticesforyouthillinois_042013.pdf • The cost of confinement: Why good juvenile justice policies make good fiscal sense. (2009, May). Retrieved from http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/09_05_rep_costsofconfinement_jj_ps.pdf • Kramer, H. (2003). What works: Promoting youth justice through restorative alternatives. Waterbury, VT: Vermont Agency of Human Services, Planning Division. Retrieved from http://humanservices.vermont.gov/publications/reports-whatworks/ww-restore-justice • Mendel, R. A. (2011). No place for kids: The case for reducing juvenile incarceration. Retrieved from http://www.aecf.org/OurWork/JuvenileJustice/~/media/Pubs/Topics/Juvenile Justice/Detention Reform/NoPlaceForKids/JJ_NoPlaceForKids_Full.pdf