Reduce Juvenile Detention

Why is this Trend Important?

• Juvenile detention harms youth.  Inadequate and inhumane conditions in juvenile detention facilities seriously damage young people. Those who experience detention have higher rates of attempted suicide and psychiatric disorders, high recidivism rates and are more likely to engage in adult criminal behavior. Reducing the use of juvenile detention improves public safety and increases the likelihood that youth will avoid adult criminal behavior.

What Do We Know About This Trend?

• Detention use varies across the states. Juvenile detention rates have declined nationally since 1999.
• Most youth are detained for non-violent offenses. Many youth are detained because of status offenses, violations of court orders related to status offenses and probation violations. The largest group of youth in detention is held for property and public order offenses, non-violent crimes. Six out of seven of youth detained for drug charges are held for possession, not sale or distribution.^[1]
• Minorities are disproportionately represented in detention facilities. Minority youth are two-thirds of the detention/correctional population but are only one-third of the national general youth population.^[2]

What are the Forces and Influences at Work?

Impact of “super-predator” fears.  In the mid 1990s a number of academics warned of an approaching juvenile crime wave.  In 1995, John Dilulio attached the term “superpredator” to the then preadolescents that he predicted would be part of a huge and ruthless juvenile crime wave; dominated by young people of color.^[3] These youth were described as “fatherless, jobless, and Godless” by Dilulio, who was joined in his predictions by several other academics. However, after the peak of juvenile crime in the mid 1990s, juvenile crime rates fell for the next ten years and several studies disproved the myth of the “superpredator”. The temporary spike in youth violence was attributable to economic disparity, adult drug dealers using youth as pawns and easy access to guns. Unfortunately however, the myth had taken hold (fueled by the media) and consequently a barrage of “get tough on (youth) crime” laws were enacted that in part remain in effect today.^[4]

• Youth in the adult criminal justice system.  Policy established in the mid 1990s led to revising the traditional practice of treating young offenders as different from adult criminals; less culpable because of their age and more amenable to rehabilitation.  This change in policy therefore led to reduced efforts to rehabilitate youth and to increased youth punishment; including increased transfers of youthful offenders from juvenile to criminal courts. The increase in transfers of juvenile offenders to the adult criminal justice system reduces juvenile detentions and is therefore to be taken into account when reviewing reduced detention rates.^[5] Social science research and studies on brain development show conclusively that adolescents are less mature than adults, and more likely to desist from crime and respond to rehabilitation. Furthermore, studies consistently find that young people prosecuted and punished in the adult justice system are more likely to re-offend than similar youth retained in the juvenile system. Nonetheless, an estimated 200,000 youthful offenders are tried in adult courts every year, many of whom are punished in adult prisons or through adult probation/parole systems.^[6]
• Disparate treatment of minorities. Disparities in the treatment of minorities have led to disproportionate representation throughout the juvenile justice system.  In fact, research clearly states that youth of color are treated more harshly than white youth at every stage of the juvenile justice process, even when they present the same histories and are accused of the same crimes.^[7] Furthermore, African-American youth are disproportionately impacted by transfer policies. In a study of 40 major jurisdictions, African-American youth made up 62% of youth transferred to the criminal justice system. Over 40% of these youth are ultimately not convicted, suggesting that cases brought against them were not very strong. Nevertheless, many will have spent time in an adult jail; of the black youth held pretrial in the adult system, 65% were held in adult jails.^[8]
• Systemic problems. Overwhelmed courts, a lack of community resources, a lack of alternatives to detention, ineffective legal assistance and poor risk assessment capacity result in the overuse of detention. In a series of recent reports, the American Bar Association and the National Juvenile Defender Center have documented severe weaknesses in the legal representation offered to low-income youth involved in juvenile court.^[9]
• Decline in arrests. There has been a decrease in juvenile crime in the United States; including arrests for violent crimes, person and property crimes.