Kids in Detention

By Dave Maass

14 states still allow the use of pepper spray in youth facilities as a ‘last resort.’

Kids Behind Bars: John Jay/Tow Foundation National Symposium for Journalists

Why does the U.S. lead the world in youth imprisonment?  What should a truly effective juvenile justice system look like?  How can the media stay ahead of the story?

On April 23-24, 2012, 30 journalists from around the nation joined some of the country's most prominent juvenile justice experts, practitioners and advocates to explore those questions at a special symposium at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, organized by John Jay's Center on Media, Crime and Justice with the support of the Tow Foundation and in cooperation with John Jay's Center for Research and Evaluation.

The 30 journalists, selected as Reporting Fellows, examined current sentencing and detention practices, the impact of race, treatment of mental health and substance abuse, and the role of police, courts, schools (and parents) in the so-called "school to prison pipeline."  The year-long fellowship also includes the establishment of a "juvenile justice news network" for reporters to assist them in following trends in this area, and new research--with the aim of providing the tools that can help foster informed public debate at local and national levels in 2012 and beyond.

The symposium entitled  Kids Behind Bars: Where's the Justice in  America's Juvenile Justice System, Covering the Juvenile Justice Reform Debate in 2012 featured keynote speeches from Gail Garinger, The Child Advocate of the State of Massachusetts;  attorney Bryan Stevenson who argued the Supreme Court case related to juvenile Life Without Parole;  and Mike Bocian, Pollster & Founding Partner, GBA Strategies.

Panelists included: Vincent N. Schiraldi, Commissioner, New York City Department of Probation, James Bell, Founder and Executive Director, W. Haywood Burns Institute, C. Jama Adams, Professor and Chair of John Jay College's Africana Studies Department and Joseph Gaudett, Chief of Police, Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Proceedings of the conference, including podcasts,  research materials provided by speakers, are covered below. For a full list of speakers, panelists and the agenda click here.

NOTE: this page will be updated regularly with articles by Fellows and other information as it becomes available.

TX Youth Detention Workers Blamed Violence on Rules Easing Discipline

Last year, as beatings and fights engulfed the 300-bed Texas lockup for teen offenders near Giddings, staff members were not surprised. "The blood had been coming for more than a year," said one veteran employee told the Austin American-Statesman. "Everyone here knew the population was getting a lot tougher. We knew the programs didn't work right. We knew the gangs were out of control, (that) the place was getting out of control. Everyone knew the clock was ticking." Everyone, it seems, except officials at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, who said problems at lockups that surfaced publicly this year were overblown and that the new juvenile justice system created after a 2007 sex abuse scandal was beginning to blossom.

Despite years of reforms — from shifting two-thirds of the incarcerated youths into community-based programs to reducing the number of lockups from 14 to six to increasing oversight through special investigators and an ombudsman — one thing did not change: a management philosophy that stresses treatment and rehabilitation, oftentimes at the expense of security. Without exception, a dozen Giddings employees blame the spike in violence on a series of policy changes implemented under Executive Director Cherie Townsend in the past two years that removed consequences for youths' bad behavior — preventing officials from locking them in secure cells or removing credits for completing programs required before they are released.

Perry Taps Key Aide to Deal with Violence at TX Juvenile Lockups

Jay Kimbrough, Gov. Rick Perry's key fix-it man, was reassigned from a high-level post at the Texas Department of Public Safety to help restore order...

Few Juveniles in TX County Jails, Some Isolated, In Danger

Few juveniles in Texas land in county jails, but when they do they are often isolated, in danger from older inmates, and without access to educational and rehabilitative programs, says University of Texas reprot quoted by the Texas Tribune. Last year, state legislators allowed local boards to give judges the discretion to send youths who are certified to stand trial as adults to juvenile facilities, instead of county jails.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin's LBJ School of Public Affairs surveyed jails to determine what kind of conditions juveniles face when they are incarcerated in facilities meant for adults. Jails, they discovered, are not suited to deal with the particular needs of youths. “There’s no good answer,” said Michele Deitch, who led the study. “The jail administrators are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to managing these juveniles.” Researchers discovered far fewer youths in county jails than they expected. Each year from 2006 to 2010, about 200 youths were certified to stand trial as adults. Last October and November, there were only 34 youths under the age of 18 in jails statewide.

National Review Objects to U.S. Grant to Group With Dohrn on Board

An editor of the conservative National Review is questioning why the U.S. Justice Department gave $400,000 in grants to an organization that lists a Northwestern University professor and former Weather Underground activist as a board member, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Robert VerBruggen of the magazine asked why the government gave funds to the W. Haywood Burns Institute, whose board member Bernardine Dohrn who was once one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives.

The funds were to help the San Francisco-based institute’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, which aims to reduce racial disparities in the juvenile justice system. VerBruggen agrees with the goal but asserted that, "there are plenty of charities that do good work without including Weather Underground co-founders on their boards of directors and openly praising prison rioters on their websites."

Texas Legislators Question Efficacy of State Juvenile Justice Reforms

A legislative inquiry in Texas is focusing on whether sweeping juvenile justice reforms instituted five years ago are still working, reports the Austin American-Statesman. "It would appear that the management of the (Texas Juvenile Justice Department) has not been properly managing or protecting the youth and staff," said Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who authored many of the reforms. "You could change the names and dates, and it would be 2007 all over again."

Meanwhile, the former superintendent of the Giddings State School claimed in a lawsuit that he was fired in March for reporting violations of state law and growing safety issues at the troubled lockup. A week ago, in an inspection report that quickly triggered a legislative investigation, Ombudsman Debbie Unruh detailed allegations that youths at Giddings were being "bought and owned" by other youths for cigarettes, illicit drugs and money at a facility that was chaotic and unsafe for some youths and staff alike. The nine-page report listed an array of other issues: Youth ringleaders are "controlling the culture on this campus," staff have a lack of control over youths, youths have refused to leave security detention for fear of their safety, and bullying and extortion of food are common.

Kids Behind Bars: Live Blogging from the John Jay/Tow Foundation on Juvenile Justice Day 2

By Cara Tabachnick

Journalists and juvenile justice experts gathered on day two to discuss covering the juvenile justice reform debate in 2012 at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Kids Behind Bars: Live Blogging from the John Jay/Tow Foundation on Juvenile Justice

By Cara Tabachnick

Journalists and juvenile justice experts gathered to discuss covering the juvenile justice reform debate in 2012 at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Florida Counties Challenge State's Bills for Juvenile Detention

An administrative law judge Monday will hear arguments in part of a wide-ranging dispute about whether Florida is forcing counties to pick up too much of the cost of juvenile detention, reports the News Service of Florida. Okaloosa and Nassau counties are challenging the way the Department of Juvenile Justice is carrying out a law that requires counties to pay detention costs before court "disposition" of juveniles' cases. The challenge is part of a string of related legal disputes involving at least 10 counties --- and deals with issues that the Florida Association of Counties says have long been a priority for its members.

Gregory Stewart, an attorney for Okaloosa and Nassau counties, said the primary problem is that the "system is rigged to pass costs to the counties." But the Department of Juvenile Justice said in legal documents that the rules are a valid way to determine how detention costs will be shared by the state and counties. The issue, which stems from a 2004 law, involves complicated questions about how much of the detention tab counties should pay. Okaloosa County, for example, is disputing nearly $1.1 million in costs from the 2009-10 fiscal year, while Nassau takes issue with about $97,000. Other counties involved in pending cases include Bay, Broward, Hernando, Lee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Pinellas and Seminole.

Report Documents Spike in Violence at Maryland Juvenile Facilities

Youth violence and staff uses of force spiked in 2011 at Maryland's most troubled juvenile detention centers, reports the Baltimore Sun. An annual report by the state's Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit, part of the attorney general's office, says the number of incident reports filed rose 25 percent from 2010 to 2011 across the state's juvenile justice system to nearly 8,000, while some of the more violent categories of incidents increased even more.

The rise in violence frustrates child advocates, who call it the latest symptom of long-standing problems in Maryland's juvenile justice system. Youths spend months in detention centers waiting to be placed in treatment programs, a process that should take weeks. Some facilities are at nearly twice their capacity, and sometimes the young inmates resort to violence. And the staff, stressed by mandatory overtime hours, are fleeing for higher-paying jobs in the adult justice system, leaving inexperienced staff to deal with angry teens.

Concerns Over Financing Stall Juvenile Justice Reforms in Georgia

A push to reform juvenile justice in Georgia failed over finances in the state legislature, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The 246-page proposal was a rewrite of the entire Georgia Code that deals with children, including incarceration, foster care and termination of parental rights. It was the result of five years of work and assurances that reforming the juvenile justice system would save money and young lives that otherwise would be lost to the criminal justice system. But the would-be reforms died over concerns that local governments would have had to cover millions in costs, and the state would have to come up with more money. The bill had passed the House but didn't get on the Senate's final calendar.

"The governor knows we need significant reform in our juvenile justice system," said Brian Robinson, Gov. Nathan Deal's spokesman. "He agrees with the direction of the legislation, but right now, there are too many unknowns about the costs involved. Estimates vary widely, but we do know that it comes with a hefty price tag. The governor would like to see that issue resolved, so that we can move forward on these needed improvements." Douglas County District Attorney David McDade, who was among the prosecutors arguing against the bill, said, “The difficulty has been good government costs money, and if we’re going to have to implement that [bill], we need the resources. We support the bill as long as it’s fully funded.”

Hundreds of Children Detained in Remote Facilities Around the World: Report

Hundreds of children are held around the world in secure and remote detention facilities, according to a new report by the The International Detention Coalition (IDC), which has formed a coalition to stop the detention of children. 

Cuts to Prison Education Programs Shortsighted, Columnist Says

Cuts to prisoner job-training and education programs are shortsighted, says Denver Post columnist Tina Griego. She profiles The Empowerment Program, a nonprofit whose prisoner re-entry component is being shut down due to budget cuts. Griego writes, "Every month, Colorado's prisons release about 900 inmates on parole. From month to month, another 2,800 inmates are living in halfway houses where they must pay rent and find work to pay that rent."

"These two groups jump into the job pool to compete with the thousands of unemployed people who don't have a rap sheet. You know who gets hired. Federal Department of Labor money that helped ex-offenders with job training and work support is disappearing. So, too, is Department of Corrections money for vocational ed and GED classes — the classes that help an inmate find work once released." She adds, "Creative thinking is required. The money is drying up." 

Juvenile Justice Realignment in 2012

California's proposed criminal justice realignment gains support from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ), which issued a report with policy recommendations focusing on youth detention.