Juvenile Detention Facilities: A Case Study

A difficult challenge to the juvenile justice system and child welfare system is working with adolescents with comorbid difficulties, causing these adolescents to becoming at risk for incarceration and involvement with the juvenile and adult justice system. The juvenile justice system appears to be having a challenging time in determining how to respond and treat adolescents with mental health and substance use. "Many

The juvenile justice system faces a significant challenge in identifying and responding to the psychiatric disorders of detained youth because research has shown that it is difficult to define the best means to use and enhance the scarce mental health resources (Kessler & Kraus, 2007). According to Cocozza and Skowyra (2000) “Children’s and adolescents’ mental health needs have historically been addressed inadequately in policy, practice, and research and have only the number of youth with mental illness and their level of unmet needs recognized” (p 4). Furthermore, that the juvenile justice system has gone from treatment and rehabilitation to retribution and punishment, that the prevalence is

On 11/13/15, the child was transported from Singing River by ambulance to Children’s and Women’s Hospital for medical reasons. The reporter stated since his admission, the child has displayed disrespectful and defiant behaviors. According to the reporter, Hunter has cursed staff, acted out, and been non-cooperative. The reporter stated on 11/16/15, Hunter’s girlfriend came to the hospital to visit him. During the visit a nurse witnessed the two minors outside smoking marijuana. The reporter stated when the children returned to Hunter’s room, they were asked not to go outside. The reporter stated on 11/17/15 she entered Hunter’s room and smelled marijuana; the reporter believes the drug was used inside the room. Ms. Odom stated security escorted

The Texas juvenile justice system is comprised of 166 juvenile probation departments serving all 254 Texas counties. Approximately 98% of youth in the Texas juvenile justice system are provided services through their local probation departments. These departments and residential facilities provide numerous services, but only a small number of facilities offer programs and housing for mental health juvenile offenders. Many public officials, officers, educational staff and those dealing with juvenile offenders are typically quick to label a juvenile as a typical behavioral issue. This is normally the case but in recent years data has showed that… “Of the new admissions in 2014, there were 54% who presented with at psychiatric diagnosis, indicating a need for mental health care.” Certified peace officers,

Juvenile justice settings, especially in Texas, were not designed as sites for comprehensive psychological and psychiatric treatment of adolescents’ mental disorders. On national, state, and local levels there has been a major increase in the interest of mental health needs within the juvenile justice system. Evidence-based research and data has become more available with societies interest into this matter. A continuous struggle with Texas policymakers and officials is identifying and properly treating mentally ill juveniles and keeping them out of the justice system. Acknowledging established data and comparing it to current Texas mandates helps seek recommendations for improvement within all levels and jurisdictions of the Texas juvenile justice system.

In America we sometimes house juveniles and adults in the same prison system. In the state of Wisconsin in 2014, we have incarcerated 121 minors into the adult system. While incarcerating these juveniles in the prison system some may wonder how does it affect a juvenile, Also what problems do they face while in prison and lastly, how has their life change for better or worse after they are released back into society.

USELESS JUVENILE INCARCERATION SYSTEM 2A Broken Juvenile Detention SystemThe juvenile detention system is broken because all troubled teens should be treated for instead of punished, rising recidivism rates are caused by punishment itself. The youth spends a lot of time that could be spent in a classroom behind bars. This issue is like a butterfly effect affecting society. The youth should be getting treated instead of being punished, serving punishment is the root of the problem. Justice cannot be served with racism floating throughout the air, racism pollutes the verdict.First off, wasted time is a wasted effort and time is something that can’t be received back.Juveniles are humans and have minds, actions, and feelings like every human being, it has to be kept in mind that control can’t be kept over everyone. Think about owning a restaurant, logically an owner won’t want to remain open in business if work is slow, get very little customers, receive bad reviews, use tools in an unsafe manner endangering people around you. Well I wouldsay a detention facility is very similar. If it’s not bringing any benefit to the youth or their families, then what is the purpose of having these facilities as a form of punishment? Facts are provided based off some of these facilities major flaws. “Specifically, the report will show that these facilities are frequently: (1) dangerous, (2) ineffective, (3) unnecessary, (4) obsolete, (5) wasteful, and (6) inadequate. A subsequent chapter addresses the question of public safety,finding that states where juvenile confinement was sharply reduced in recent years experienced more favorable trends in juvenile crime than jurisdictions which maintained or increased their correctional facility populations....” (Mendel, 2013). Logically, based on the results provided it issafe to say that not confining juveniles will show a positive outcome. The juvenile crime rates are favorably lower for cities and help maintain correctional facility population to a norm. Solid

I, Yuniqua Burris observed a pre-trial case June 13, 2016 at York County Detention Center also known as Moss Justice Center. I observed a case of Domestic Violence 3rd Degree between a young woman and her boyfriend. The criminal domestic violence law apples to anyone that lives with a spouse or who have lived with the spouse, if they've been married, or have children together. In this case young lady and her boyfriend have a child together this is why it's considered a domestic violence case. The young man pressed charges against the woman. The young lady was arrested April 15, 2016. After that day the judge issued an protection order against the young man until farther notice witch was the following court date. The charge could've carried

The age requirement for a youth to enter inside a secure facility is between the age of 5 and 21. A youth that is above the age of 16 and does not have superior court chargers and committed to the state the youth can be housed at a juvenile detention to they are 21 years of age. If the youth is a superior court youth and has turned 17 the youth will be transfer to the county jail where they committed their offense. Or they will be transferred to the Department of Corrections if they have been given their time. In some cases they judge may allow the youth to stay inside a juvenile detention while the youth is on trial even if the youth has turned 17. It must be a court order.

The following memorandum provides a summary of Mrs. Mathews, Laurie’s (#962) job performance during her assignment as a Booking Technician at the HCSO Detention Center.

When addressing the disparity of mental illness in the juvenile justice system, we must modify our current approaches to juvenile offenders, which begins with sentencing practices of the judiciary. It is crucial that judges consider the safety of the public when they are sentencing juvenile offenders; however, judges should guarantee that they take the well-being of the juvenile into consideration and use this to determine an appropriate intervention. To encourage this behavior among the judiciary, I propose the instillation of training sessions with mental health professionals. These sessions would be designed to modify judicial approaches to juvenile court cases. I envision that these sessions will work to identify the implicit biases regarding

I found after reading this article to be very interesting, which focuses on how juvenile justice facilities are slowly starting to change their approach in detaining adolescents in detention centers. This change in philosophy can be attribute it to Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI), which advocates for keeping adolescents out of a traumatic environments, such as detention facilities. There have been several studies conducted, which revealed unreasonably high levels of stress among adolescents in detention centers, mostly due to traumatic experiences prior to being detained. "Kids who get into trouble, including committing crime and violence, are usually acting out of their own traumatic childhoods" (Finkel, 2015, para. 18). Despite,

The lack of resources available towards adolescents that have mental health problems in juvenile detention centers is a growing concern among most facilities across the country. Consequently, “mental health professionals in juvenile detention settings are working with a population in need of extensive mental

“I used to believe are our future but now I realize that this, sadly isn’t the reality. Through laws that treat kids like adults, the government is throwing away the future of children in this country.” (D. Lee) An estimated 200,000 juveniles are tried as adults. The term juvenile refers to any young person under the age of 18. For most states in the United States, the age of majority is 18. While there are many things that juveniles are unable to do until they reach the age of 18, being charged as an adult for a crime is not amongst those things in some states. Juveniles are not allowed to vote, drink alcohol, or sign a legal contract, yet they can be charged and treated like adults when it comes to them being

In conducting this interview, Erin and I asked Ms. Mercer a collection of questions concerning Ms. Mercer’s job at Department of Juvenile Justice. The interviewee name is Misty Mercer who is a juvenile probation and parole specialist at the Department of Juvenile Justice. According to Mercer (2015), the Department of Juvenile Justice serves Ware, Bacon, Brantley, Charlton, and Pierce counties, which provides probation services to juveniles as well as commitments to the department and in-state placement services that is the youth detention facility. Ms. Mercer stated that the most frustrating part of her job is unruly juveniles. Ms. Mercer went on to say that in January 2014, Juvenile Justice Reform was implemented and changed the way DJJ deal