The system is failing thousands of our most vulnerable youth. Is it time for reform?
The U.S. spends $5 billion a year on juvenile corrections, but it’s hard to argue that taxpayers are getting what they paid for. Many criminologists already agree that the country’s criminal justice system is overdue for reform; but no area seems more in need of urgent attention than juvenile justice.
Statistics suggest that the huge investment is failing those most in need of help. In New York State, for example, a longitudinal study beginning in the early 1990s found that 85 percent of boys and 65 percent of girls who are incarcerated go on to be convicted of a felony as adults, according to Gladys Carrión, Commissioner of New York State’s Office of Children and Family Services. Seventy percent of adult prisoners in California were once in foster care.
According to Carrión, the system allows these these young people to be treated like “throw-aways.”
“We obviously don’t value them,” she charges. “We incarcerate them and these are their lives’ future outcomes.”
Moreover, although Carrión says that nearly 75 percent of incarcerated youth aged 10 to 17 have a diagnosable mental illness, most juvenile facilities have no on-staff counselors. And, if anything, today’s juvenile justice system perpetuates an ugly cycle of crime and racial inequity: as of 2007, 1.7 million American children had a parent in prison, according to a report last year by the Sentencing Project (Incarcerated Parents and Their Children: Trends 1991-2007). In 2008, arrest rates for robbery were 10 times higher for black youth than white, according to National Criminal Justice Reference Service figures cited by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquent Protection.
The problems are exacerbated from the moment a juvenile is caught up in the system. Juvenile detention centers around the nation have been hit by a succession of scandals involving sexual and other types of physical abuse.
"We are in the midst of a national crisis of abuse,” says Barry Krisberg, a long-time youth advocate and distinguished senior fellow with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
Krisberg, who spoke at last week’s John Jay/H.F Guggenheim Conference on Crime in America, cited a recent Department of Justice study that found 12 percent of incarcerated youth report having been sexually abused. “It’s a complete collapse of care,” he said. “In these facilities young women are given dirty and torn underwear. The place smells bad. There’s a fundamental breakdown of humanity that’s allowed to go on.”
Carrión, one of the country’s most controversial juvenile justice figures, argues for fundamental reform of the system from the inside. She has used recent media exposés about the horrors of detention in her state’s Tryon Residential Facility to push for closing such facilities and transforming their mission, as she puts it, from a “punitive model based on an adult correctional approach” to a more “therapeutic framework of young development.”
She admits that it won’t be easy. Conceding that Tryon and similar facilities lack in-house mental health workers even though nearly three-quarters of the state’s incarcerated youth have mental illnesses, she observes there are few professionals willing to work with incarcerated youth for the meager state wage.
Indeed. A blockbuster December 2009 report concluded that New York’s juvenile prison system was so “broken” that Carrión’s agency recommended New York State judges not to send any youths to detention centers unless they pose a significant public safety risk.
Krisberg, whom Carrión hired as a consultant, said that the state essentially gets what it pays for when it comes to corrections personnel, linking low wages and inadequate training directly to the problem.“In many cases, if a Kmart opens up, Kmart pays more than [the officers] are getting paid,” he said. And without proper training to deal effectively with the psychological damage and subsequent bad behavior exhibited by most of the children, “staff are going to do what comes natural and oftentimes what comes natural is abusive.”
Lack of Empathy
But, according to Krisberg, abuse is not the only problem inside juvenile facilities. He points to a lack of common sense and empathy by administrators. Krisberg related an experience he’d had in California where a black teenage girl was brought before a detention center disciplinary panel made up entirely of middle-aged white men and asked to describe her history of sexual abuse and molestation.
Not surprisingly, she felt unsafe relating such intimate, painful details before an audience of strangers she felt no connection with. So she stayed silent—and was given an extra 90 days on her time for failing to participate in her treatment.
Krisberg was floored: “They never thought, maybe we ought to get someone who knows something about young women, their development, their issues.”
Most experts agree that by the time a young person enters the juvenile justice system, the system has already failed her. Unless young children in troubled circumstances get skilled and empathetic attention, their lives will go tragically off course.
Tony DiVittorio, creator of the Youth Guidance Becoming a Man (BAM) program in Chicago, works to prevent at-risk youth from getting caught up in the juvenile justice system by catching young men as soon as they exhibit disturbing behavior in school. BAM aims to help them learn personal responsibility, character development, and how to express their anger in normal and constructive ways. DiVittorio—whose 10-year-old program has expanded to 15 Chicago-area schools and is the subject of a University of Chicago study—says male mentoring is especially important in communities where father-son relationships are often strained or non-existent.
“It’s all about prevention,” he said at a special H.F. Guggenheim conference panel on juvenile justice last week. “If Michael’s been referred to me because he’s talking in class and getting suspensions and I say, ‘I’m a counselor, why are you getting suspensions, what’s your problem?’ he shuts me out. [So instead] I say, ‘what is it you want to say?’ (and assure him) ’you have a lot to say.’”
Early intervention programs, which identify at-risk youngsters as early as two years old or younger, are also critical, says Sherry M. Cleary, Executive Director of New York City’s Early Childhood Professional Development Institute. At the symposium, she offered a seemingly simple solution to help the youngest kids who are showing signs of acting up at primary school levels.
Food.
According to Cleary, providing kids with the right sustenance can go a long way toward keeping them out of contact with the criminal justice system.
“Thirty-five years ago I had food in my classroom, because when children came in they were starving and they couldn’t pay attention,” she said. “When you’re hungry, you’re crabby, and when you’re crabby you hit people. So do you want to criminalize that child or do you feed them?”
Julia Dahl is a contributing editor to The Crime Report
Photo by circulating via Flickr.
Posted by Luis
Friday, April 27, 2012 02:15
To old Absolute poppycock. a few tuhghots are1. Let friendship grow out of natural interests. 2. Join a network for a reason/ purpose3. Don’t force it let it happen naturally.However, it does no harm to introduce yourself and your interests to new members of a network and be pro-active and participative in contributing to nwetowrk activities. Somerthing along thelines of put something inand you’ll get something back’
Posted by JANET LEMUS
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 08:26
CORRECTONAL FACILITIES ARE MEANT TO HELP THE YOUTH THAT GOES IN THERE BUT MANY TIMES THE NOT WHAT HAPPENS I THINK THAT THIS IS A PERSONAL ISSUE BECAUSE ALOT OF OUR LOVE ONES GO TO THESE FACILITIES WE SHOULD CHANGE HOW THEY DO THINGS THERE AND GET COUNCELERS FOR THEM BECAUSE THAT MAY HELP AND ALSO AS KATIE SAID THERE ARE SOME THAT JUST NEED A HUG OR SOMEONE TO TELL THEM IT’S OKAY. I KNOW ALOT OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE GONE THO THOSE FACILITIES AND SAY THAT IT’S A HORRIBLE PLACE.
Posted by It’s Really Not Personal « Non-Happy Endings
Saturday, February 13, 2010 11:44
[…] Sometimes that ends up leading to interesting insights. As I was reading the article, “Throw-Away Children,” by Julia Dahl, this quote stood out: Statistics suggest that the huge investment is failing […]
Posted by Linda Indyke RN, BC
Thursday, February 11, 2010 08:13
I work with juveniles housed in a secure residential treatment center in MD. Some of the comments by those who work at Tryon or other NYS juvenile detention facilities show a great deal of defensiveness, similar to what has been experienced within the mental health system when change has been made to a more positive treatment model. Yes, there are youth correctional officers who are there for the kids and believe that because of their youth, there is a greater chance of rehabilitation. But there are also others who provoke, exploit, and abuse these kids, many of whom have emotional illnesses and have been subjected to severe abuse. Continuing to view these youth in a negative way, as severely aggressive, leads to their behaviors fulfilling your own prophesies. Positive behavioral approaches, with the use of natural consequences, does work. And, yes, in my career of more than 20 years, I have also treated severely aggressive youth, some of whom are quite capable of injuring staff. I recommend trying a more positive strategy, such as ResponseAbility Pathways (RAP), finding the assets already present in the youth, and building on those, and creating the expectation that the youngster will exhibit better behavioral controls to create a significantly less violent milieu. So, before you criticize Ms Carrion, try one of the programs, such as RAP, that has a successful track record with youth.
Posted by Katie
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 09:48
Carrion continues to leave out the details that tell the whole story. Her outright lies and 1/2 truths mislead the public and the media who buy into it. Tryon was once respected and sought out by other agencys, under her “guidance” it has been reduced to a dangerous and chaotic place for residents and staff alike. Until her misguided policies and procedures change it will remain that way. She should run group homes and re-hab, not a correctional facility because she has no clue about just how dangerous these kids are. How many staff deaths does it take before someone wakes up? She would have people believe residents are restrained for minor issues. These are aggressive and dangerous youth, it doesn’t take much for a minor incident to escalate into a major one. She continually harps on one or two incidents from 2-3 years and is quick to discuss staff behavior (exhausted and overworked from endless 16 hr shifts) but does not reveal the increase in assaults on staff or resident on resident assaults. She refers to videos portraying staff in a negative light with out giving all the details. Where are the videos of assaults on staff? Not a slap but vicious attacks resulting in serious injury. False accusations of child abuse are rampant, even resulting criminal charges against residents. Residents have learned to use these as a method of control against staff they don’t like or to get out of being held accountable for their actions. Residents are restrained as a last resort and then to prevent harm to staff, another resident or themselves. Injuries do occur when trying to gain control of an out of control resident but when you are attempting to assault someone at what point are you responsible for the result of your actions whether you are an adult or a child? She is quick to talk about injuries to resident but fails to acknowledge the surge in injuries to staff. The local Sheriff, DA and a local physician have spoken out about staff injuries and the dangerous working conditions she has created.
She is right about one thing though. We are not preparing these kids to go back into society. They won’t be allowed to spit at, curse at, threaten and assault people when they are released. I don’t know of any employer that will allow their employees to sleep in and show up for work when they feel like it or lay their head down and take a nap when they feel like it. This is the type of behavior tolerated in OCFS. If a bad childhood means you don’t have to be held accountable for your crimes or your behavior then we better open up the prison gates because there are a whole lot of people that need to be set free.
Posted by innerpeace5
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 09:39
My two girls started out in the Georgia Juvenile system at about 12 and 13. The year before, they witnessed their 8 year old sister hit by a car and she passed away 9 days later. They were seriously Traumatized. Their AB honor role grades plummeted. They were always good little girls, I never had any problems with them. I took them to counseling. We all 3 went to individual counselors. They couldnt get them to open up and they stopped going. I started us all three at a local hospice where they had just began a grief supprt group for children. That didn’t last long. They acted out in all the worst ways kids can struggeling with grief and were just out of control. They spent 75 days in a row in YDC for being unruly. They needed help so bad, not jail.
This is one of the main problems I have seen, not only with my kids but other parents going through the same thing. There either arn’t sources available for these children or no one tried that first! This was bacl in 1998/99 and I know things in Georgia have changed for the better. I still can’t believe that things have changed that much though, no way!
I just wanted to add my 2 cents worth but I can say this, if this facilty is like they say it is, then I say shut it down! If not and there is time for corrections to be made, make them. Just please remember, there are kids in there that need medication, may have never seen a Dr. , kids that need a mentor, kids that just need a hug and to know that someone cares. Locking up children only makes things worse! Then guess what, then they want to blame the parents for everything, never fails! those kids “Wear The Mask”…they need patience, understanding and they need to trust.
Posted by Katie 22
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 09:17
Ms Carrion focuses on Tryon when all of OCFS is in shambles due to her failed policies and procedures. Under her direction Tryon has gone from being the gem of the agency to a lump of coal. Ms Carrion continues to take a couple of incidents and harp on them but leaves out the information that tells the whole story. She leads the public (and the media who buy into her 1/2 truths and lies) that residents are restained for minor incidents, not acknowledging that these minor incidents lead to major incidents. These kids are violent and agressive, it doesn’t take much for a minor issue to escalate. She doesn’t report the increase in assaults on staff, the increase in arrests of these “children” for assaulting other residents. Residents have learned that false accusations against staff is a powerful tool to allow them to run wild. Residents have even been incarcerated for lying.. Staff restrain residents as a last resport, usually because a resident is either attempting to hurt a staff, another resident or themselves. There may be inuries as a result of trying to restrain an out of control resident but at what point is a person, young or old, responsible for their behavior. The local Sheriff, DA and a local Physician have spoken out about the increase in staff injuries and dangerous working conditions at Tryon under her direction.
Carrion and her supporters are right about one thing..we are not preparing these kids for the real world. No employer is going to put up with being spit at, cursed at and disrespected. If they don’t feel like getting up and going to work I’m sure they won’t be allowed to show up for work when they feel like it or put their head down and take a nap whenever they feel like it. The public will not tolerate being threatened or assaulted. This is the type of behavior tolerated in OCFS. If a bad childhood entitles one to not be held accountable for their crime or their actions then lets just open up the prison gates, I’m guessing a lot of adult criminals had a bad childhood. These kids crave structure not the chaos Carrion has createed.
Posted by Marge
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 07:08
Once again a lopsided expose on Tryon. So tired of my husband being portrayed as having no empathy for these children. What Miss Carrion doesn’t seem to understand is accountability is 90 percent of the problem. These kids need to be held accountable for their actions in and out side of Tryon. There is no hope for change for them unless this happens. Ms. Carrion’s ideas are useless and misguided at best. She has had it in for Tryon for a long time, probably due to the fact that the employees there are very vocal against her silly ideas and with good reason. Just remember NY, these kids are serious offenders and should be treated as such and I know I don’t want them living next to me.
Posted by Lady
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 03:43
So why is Ms. Carrion holding her employees responsible for her not being able to hire proper staff/ psychologists. In many cases employees were chastized in the media for following the rules.
Posted by Kuntree B. Sweet
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 03:04
To the article-I have worked at my job for 18 years and I have watched the many YDA’s work with these youth that are being cited. While there are changes and should be some changes as to how a facility is run I think the mere fact that Ms Carrion thinks that these youth are just mental and mis guided. This is far from the truth. The youth at Tryon that she refers to have been through the system in the private sector and have failed miserably. We now have youth that stand up and refuse to even walk if they chose not to and the staff are told to stay with them until they change their minds. AWOL moments are constant due to the youth running the program. If this was your child they would be expected to follow the simple direction given. The staff at this facility are called every name in the english language and there is no correction allowed. Carrion’s report is at best jaded and no one can understand exactly why. Tryon has had a target on it for the past 3 years or so due to this woman and her inability to do her job. The restraints that are constantly placed in the public eye makes this facility out to be a mean nasty place. This is far from the truth. The youth here are given the best of almost everything. The staff make sure that at the Holidays the youth are comforted and depending on the day that all is made the best that it possibly can be. This is never mentioned. The food at this facility is fresh and the cooks prepare it so that it is appealing and editable. Most of the youth coming to this facility gain wait as a result of the food. Youth are offered and allowed to recreate with the best of equipment. While we have been investigated by The Department of Justice there has been no time to incorporate any of the recommendations that they suggested. This facility has been set up to fail and now she is closing it and moving more jobs downstate. So I would like to ask that you take the time to get both sides of the ongoing saga of Tryon.