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Instructions: Please write all of your answers in blue or purple font! Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie 2019 | Wendy Sawyer | Prison Policy Initiative 12/19/2019 Simplification/Excerpts by IVC’s ESL Department On any given day, over 48,000 youth in the United States are confined ( to keep a person or animal in a place such as a prison ) in facilities ( a building with a specific purpose ) away from home as a result of being involved in illegal actions considered juvenile or adult crimes. Most of these criminal youth are held in restrictive, correctional-style facilities, and thousands are held

without even having had a criminal trial to prove whether they are actually innocent or guilty of the crime they are accused of committing. Choose 3 words from the paragraphs above that you don’t know. Define them below. 1. Juvenile – relating to young people 2. Restrictive – one that puts a limit on something. 3. Crime – An action that is punishable by law. Based on the paragraph above, what do you think the rest of the article will be about? Is this an interesting topic to you, why or why not? I think the rest of the article will be about wrongful detention of youths in correctional facilities and recommendations on what can be done to correct this ill. It is an interesting topic to me because it relates to an issue that is affecting a large population that could easily be my friends or I. Characteristics/Qualities and Unfair Differences Among Confined Youth Generally speaking, state juvenile justice systems handle cases involving accused criminals under the age of 18. This is not always the rule, however. Every state makes exceptions for younger people to be prosecuted ( to hold a trial against a person who is accused of a crime to see if that person is guilty ) as adults in some situations or for certain crimes. Of the 43,000 youth in juvenile facilities in the U.S., more than two-thirds (69%) are 16 or older. More than 500 (1%) confined children are no more than 12 years old. Black and American Indian youth are over-represented in juvenile facilities, while white youth are under-represented. This means that confined youth are mostly black or American Indian and that you won’t find many white children in these juvenile facilities for criminals. These racial disparities ( differences ) are particularly pronounced among both Black boys and Black girls. While 14% of all youth under 18 in the U.S. are Black, 42% of boys and 35% of girls in juvenile facilities are black. Similarly, American Indians make up 3% of girls and 1.5% of boys in juvenile facilities, despite being less than 1% of all youth nationally. Racial disparities are also evident in decisions to transfer youth from juvenile to adult court for their crimes to be put on trial. In 2017, Black youth made up 35% of delinquency ( illegal or immoral behavior especially by young people ) cases, but they also represented over half (54%) of the youth transferred from juvenile court to adult court. Meanwhile, white youth accounted for 44% of all delinquency cases, but made up only 31% of judicial transfers to adult court. What this means is that more white youth committed crimes in 2017, but fewer of their cases were sent

to adult court , whereas Black youth committed fewer crimes than white children, but their cases were sent to adult court more often . Reports also show that in California, prosecutors send Hispanic youth to adult court 3.4 times the rate of white youth, and that American Indian youth are 1.8 times more likely than white youth to receive an adult prison sentence. Choose 5 words from the paragraphs above that you don’t know. Define them below. 1. Exceptions – Not included 2. Confined – Kept within certain limits 3. Pronounced – able to be noticed 4. Criminals – Persons who have committed a crime 5. Prosecutors - People who are responsible for convicting a person who has broken the law. IN YOUR OWN WORDS, explain the racial disparity that exists in the representation of youth in confinement facilities. [ HINT : see the paragraph in green above.] There is a high likelihood of finding fewer white youths in confinement facilities compared to those of other races. However, there are too many black youths in juvenile facilities than there are white youths. Indian American youths come second to the black youths at 3% of the total despite being only 1% of the total population. Black youths make up to 42% and 35% of boys and girls in confinement facilities. IN YOUR OWN WORDS, explain the racial disparity that exists in youth being tried as adults instead of children. [ HINT : see the paragraph in red above.] Despite the fact that the number of delinquent white youths is higher than that of delinquent black youths, more black youths are tried as adults in comparison to their white counterparts. Black delinquent youths make up about 35% of the delinquents but make up to 54% of the youths tried as adults. On the other hand, white delinquents are at 44% and only make 31% of the cases being tried as adults. California courts send Hispanic youths and American Indians to adult courts 3.4 and 1.8 times more than they do white youths. Most Youth Are Kept in Correctional-Style Facilities Confined youth are held in a number of different types of facilities. Some facilities look a lot like prisons, some are prisons, and others offer youth more freedom and services. For many youth, “residential placement” in juvenile facilities looks exactly the same as adult incarceration ( to be put in prison ).

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2 of every 3 confined youth are held in the most restrictive ( limiting or controlling ) facilities, which means they are sent to live in the juvenile justice system’s versions of jails and prisons, or they are kept in actual adult jails and prisons. 4,535 confined youth — nearly 1 in 10 — are incarcerated in adult jails and prisons. At least another 28,190 are held in the three types of juvenile facilities that are best described as correctional facilities: (1) detention centers, (2) long- term secure facilities, and (3) reception/diagnostic centers. 99.7% of all youth in these three types of correctional facilities are “restricted by locked doors, gates, or fences” rather than kept watch over by prison guards, and 60% are in large facilities designed for more than 50 youth. The largest share of confined youth are held in detention centers . These are similar to jails in the adult criminal justice system. Like jails, they are typically operated by local authorities, and are used for the temporary restrictive custody of people awaiting a trial or punishment. Over 60% of youth in detention centers fall into those two categories. The most common placement for committed ( sentenced ) youth is in long-term secure facilities , where the conditions of confinement are very similar to adult prisons. Often called “training schools,” these are typically the largest and oldest facilities, sometimes holding hundreds of youths behind razor wire fences, where they may be subjected to pepper spray, mechanical restraints ( tied down by hands and feet to a bed or chair or table ), and solitary confinement ( left alone in a room for 23 hours a day ). The third correctional-style facility type, reception/diagnostic centers , are often located beside long-term secure facilities. At these centers, staff evaluate youth committed by the courts and assign them to correctional facilities. Like detention centers, these are meant to be transitional placements, yet over half of the youth they hold are there longer than 90 days. More than 1 in 7 youth in these “temporary” facilities are held there for over a year before being sent somewhere else. Outside of these correctional-style facilities, another 15,400 youth are in more “residential” style facilities that are typically less restrictive, but which are all very different, ranging from secure, military- style boot camps to group homes where youth may leave to attend school or go to work. Most of these youth (78%) are still in locked facilities rather than staff-secured, and conditions in some of these facilities are reportedly worse

than prisons. Almost 9 out of 10 youth in these more “residential” facilities are in residential treatment facilities or group homes. Less frequently, youth are held in ranch or wilderness camps, shelters, or boot camps. Choose 6 words from the paragraphs above that you don’t know. Define them below. 1. Restrictive – That denies freedom of movement or action. 2. Detention - in a condition of official custody. 3. Diagnostic – That seeks a distinct characteristic. 4. Transitional – That changes from one state to the other. 5. Subjected – Forced to undergo something. 6. Wilderness – area of land that is undisturbed by developments. In the space below, name and describe the 4 types of confinement facilities that youth are held in when they are accused of or found guilty of committing a crime. [HINT: see the words in bold above.] Detention Centers - typically like jail and are used to temporary restrictive custody. Long-term secure facilities – are usually large and hold a large number of youths. Also called training schools. Reception/diagnostic centers – where youths that have been committed to court are evaluated before being assigning them correctional facilities. Residential-style facilities - are less restrictive where some even allow the youths to attend schools. What is YOUR OPINION: Which seems like the worst type of confinement facility? Why? What seems to be the worst type of confinement is the long-term facilities because they hold a large of youths in what looks like adult prisons while limiting many of their freedoms. They also subject the people confined in them to pepper spray and other mechanical restraints. Locked Up Before They Even Get a Trial or for Small Offenses Truthfully, many youth are found guilty of serious offenses and could actually be dangerous to the community, but pre-trial ( before the criminal trial ) confinement is surprisingly common too. Judges choose to detain ( keep hold of ) youth in over a quarter (26%) of delinquency cases, resulting in a disturbing number of youth in juvenile facilities who are not even serving a criminal sentence. More than 9,500 youth in juvenile facilities — or 1 in 5 — haven’t even been found guilty or delinquent based on their accused crime, and are locked up in a confinement facility before they even have a criminal trial . Another 6,100 are detained awaiting punishment or placement into a confinement facility.

Most detained youth are held in detention centers, but nearly 1,000 are locked in long- term secure facilities — which are basically prisons — without even having been committed of a crime . Of those 1,000, less than 500 are accused of violent crimes. Even if pretrial detention might be justified in some serious or violent cases, over 3,200 youth are detained for small offenses, which are “behaviors that are not considered illegal for adults.” Far from locking up youth only as a last resort to stop serious crimes, the juvenile justice system confines large numbers of children and teenagers (1 in 5) for the smallest offenses. Choose 4 words from the paragraphs above that you don’t know. Define them below. 1. Violent – Involving physical force. 2. Justified- Marked by a legitimate reason. 3. Technical – Relating to a particular subject. 4. Accused – On trial for a crime. IN YOUR OWN WORDS, explain the phrase “1 in 5 — haven’t even been found guilty or delinquent based on their accused crime, and are locked up in a confinement facility before they even have a criminal trial.” What does this mean? The phrase means that about 1 in every five youths charged with various crimes are held in confinement facilities that are basically like adult prisons before judges have heard their cases. IN YOUR OWN WORDS, describe the big problem with the juvenile justice system. [ HINT : re-read the sentences in red above.] Too many young people are being held in confinement facilities, leading to many confined youths in juvenile facilities. This is because the juvenile justice system sees locking youths up as the best solution to preventing crimes amongst youths. What have you learned overall from reading this article? What might be another way to help youth accused of or found guilty of a crime besides confining them to a facility? I have learned that a considerably higher number of black youths are tried in adult cases than white youths. Too many youths are being held in juvenile facilities and other confinement

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facilities, some without having been tried or found guilty of their crimes. A better way to help youths found guilty of a crime may be by allowing them the option of reporting to a parole officer on a daily basis while continuing with their lives and only confine those that have failed to show improvement this way.

behdokht[4585]

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