Some experts believe sending teenagers back to adult jails isn’t a solution to the chaos at the juvenile centers. Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, thinks the city and ACS need to rethink forced confinement for young people charged with major crimes. Continue reading NYC Juvenile Detention Staffer Arrested, Fired for Sex with Teenage Detainee
Democrats should cue up a more enlightened sequel full of popular ideas that will make communities safer without resorting to simply locking more Americans up. Think summer jobs for teens. Think funding for drug rehab centers. And yes, maybe think about more money for better-trained police. Continue reading Slate Magazine — It’s Time for a New Crime Bill
Policymakers, advocates, and even some researchers claim that youth confinement rates across the United States dropped in recent years due to changes in policy and practice. Such claims remain unproven, but voters and elected officials are inclined to accept them as factual because they are offered by reputable agencies and repeated in news media sources. Without reliable evidence, however, the notion that state-level youth confinement rates fall primarily in response to progressive policy reforms is merely appealing rhetoric. Continue reading Easily Overstated
Quality youth justice systems (a) limit the use of confinement to cases where it is objectively necessary, (b) ensure the health and safety of all confined youth, (c) provide effective treatments and developmentally appropriate programming, and (d) continually monitor and evaluate their effectiveness. These goals apply to all forms of secure confinement regardless of financing or organizational configuration. Continue reading It’s About Quality: Private Confinement Facilities in Juvenile Justice
Incarceration has escalated over the past four decades in the United States, creating a number of negative consequences for individuals, families, and communities. This study seeks to identify the associations between mass incarceration and health behaviors/perceptions on a neighborhood level. Using the street intercept method, we collected in-person survey data from residents in two New York City neighborhoods (one in the South Bronx and the other in Northern Manhattan) with similar levels of social disadvantage but significantly different rates of jail admission. Respondents in both neighborhoods self-reported similar ratings of their physical health. Significant differences between neighborhoods include incidence of fast food consumption over the past week, alcohol use over the last 3 months, and perceptions of the occurrence of teen pregnancy in the neighborhood. This study hopes to inform future researchers and interventionists about associations between mass incarceration and health-related behaviors/perceptions to facilitate consideration of this increasingly common social factor as a determinant of community health in future research. Continue reading Associations Between Mass Incarceration and Community Health in New York City
Relationships between incarcerated parents and their children are difficult to maintain, but they are important to the relief of incarceration-induced trauma. Continue reading Inside The Osborne Association’s Prepare Program
