In South Dakota this week, a non-profit organization filed suit
against the state’s Corrections Department for its handling of
juvenile offenders now incarcerated.
The allegations of mistreatment and abuse are shocking, but
perhaps shouldn’t be — our nation has been promoting a tougher
approach to juvenile crime for years. The results, experts say,
are starting to come in.
Fear of ‘Super Predators’
The latest wave of tough-on-crime initiatives was born out of
fear. Five years ago, arrests for murder, aggravated assault,
and robbery were setting records. And some experts began warning
about a new breed of young “super predators”—a prediction that
led to federal initiatives like the Violent Youth Predator Act
of 1996, introduced by Florida Congressman Bill McCollum.
According to many experts and officials, the super predators
never materialized. Says one public defender, who asked to
remain anonymous: “I don’t see that the children have changed
very much. I can see that their environment has changed. It’s a
more dangerous time. Same temptations, but amped up” — because
of how easy it is for them to get powerful weapons.
Tough Love Gone Wrong?
Juvenile crime may not have increased, but responses to juvenile
crime are increasingly tough and often draconic. Five years ago
most young offenders in South Dakota were placed in
community-based programs rather than large penal institutions.
Since then, children as young as 14 have been placed into large
prisons. The system “is both barbaric and counterproductive,”
says March Schindler, Staff Attorney for the Youth Law Center, a
national public-interest law firm that works on behalf of
juveniles in the justice system. This past week, Schindler and
his colleagues visited a juvenile prison in South Dakota and
talked with 12 teenagers. The group walked away, says Schindler,
“with the belief that these kids were being severely
mistreated,” that a poorly trained staff was “totally incapable”
of handling their charges, and that the teenagers were suffering
from a lack of services as well as from “punitive and arbitrary
punishment.”
After investigating numerous stories of abuse, the Youth Law
Center filed a Class Action lawsuit this week, with these
allegations:
- In a practice known as “four-pointing,” girls have been
tied down in spread-eagle-fashion by male staff, who then
cut off their clothing with scissors.
- A 13-year-old boy was confined in isolation for more
than 30 days, and severely depressed children are put in
isolation without supervision for long periods of time.
Children are routinely chained to the doors of their cells
in a practice known as “bumpering.” All forms of
communication between inmates and their families are
monitored for negative comments about the facility, and
negative comments are punished. Psychotropic medications are
being dispensed by staff without adequate training, and
without supervision by medical or mental-health personnel.
These charges come following the death of a 14-year-old girl who
was forced to run as punishment — the event that touched off the
scrutiny of the South Dakota facilities last year.
“They are abusing kids as well as not giving them any
treatment,” Schindler says. He’s worried that the South Dakota
juvenile justice system is “creating an engine for crime,”
making problem kids worse.
Biased System
Further, the system may be biased against kids with learning
disabilities. Experts who have profiled juvenile offenders have
found that they are often kids who hit a learning wall early in
life, who may have trouble reading or progressing through
school. Over time, this may become a disability and a
frustration. And by the time they reach their teens, the
situation can deteriorate. They may act up in school. Violent or
anti-social behavior may be their recourse.
If this is not an excuse for criminal behavior, it is
nevertheless a haunting reality, especially when literally
hundreds of experts will tell you the same thing: the justice
system is littered with young men and women with learning
disabilities.
And many of these individuals are minorities. Black children
aged 10 to 17 are only 15% of the population. Yet they account
for 26% of juvenile arrests, 32% of delinquency referrals, 41%
of juveniles detained in delinquency cases, 46% of juveniles in
correctional institutions, and 52% of juveniles transferred to
adult criminal court after judicial hearings.
Furthermore, some studies have shown that white teens who
commit the same crimes are less likely to face such extreme
policies.
Dangerous Lessons
Yet the politics of juvenile justice rarely seem to reflect the
realities. According to the Youth Law Center, more than 40
states have changed their laws in recent years to allow more
juveniles to be tried as adults.
This, says the Center, happens despite evidence showing that
juveniles who move through adult corrections facilities are
“significantly more likely to be rearrested than those kept in
juvenile court, commit new offenses sooner, and commit more
serious offenses than juveniles kept in juvenile court.” One of
the most studied and successful programs can be found in South
Carolina, where extremely difficult teenagers are helped without
being locked away. Rather, staff intervene in their lives in an
effort to help the children gain some self-esteem, and work with
parents to foster a stable home life whenever possible.
It is a relatively simple, though time-consuming, recipe for
change. Schindler says the programs that work are generally
small, staff intensive, and directed at helping kids make a
connection with a caring adult. That adult doesn’t break them
down: instead he or she finds some strength in the teenager and
builds on that asset. It is an attempt to turn troubled youth
into self-respecting citizens.
These attempts, however difficult and costly they may be, are
worthwhile. Our current course, exemplified in South Dakota,
could prove self-defeating very quickly. The predators of
tomorrow may be the children we have failed today.
