Essay on Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice

The data for this project was collected by administering an anonymous survey to incarcerated juveniles at (name of facility), the (name) receiving center and at the NAACP office in Sacramento, California. The survey asked for gender and parental status (incarcerated versus not incarcerated). Participants were given a paper survey and a pencil to complete the survey. See Appendix for a copy of the survey.

Racial inequality in the American criminal justice system has a strong effect of many realms of society such as the family life, and employment. Education and race seem to be the most decisive factors when deciding who goes to jail and what age cohort has the greatest percentage chance of incarceration. Going to prison no longer affects just the individual who committed the crime. Instead, the family and community left behind gain a new burden by one individual's actions. The United States still has a large disparity between Whites and Blacks and now a growing Hispanic population. This racial disparity in the educational

The continual hyper-criminalization and racialization exhibited by various institutions against young black and latino boys has run rampant in the last decade. Youth in underprivileged communities across America today are subject to an inevitable web of punishment

Additionally, the juvenile justice system has become increasingly focused on the offense. Traditionally the juvenile court looked primarily at the offender, and what brought the young offender to court without focusing exclusively on the offense. The court has shifted, becoming much more offense based. Sentences are closely tied to the charges, and more and more cases qualify for the juvenile to be sentenced in the adult system. After serious strives to decriminalize status offenses, they are now being considered gateways into delinquent charges. The number of “children in need of services” or CHINS has also risen in the last decade. There is a lack of resources to provide CHINS with necessary services. As a consequence many of these

In the film Prison State, the focus was on the juveniles in the state of Kentucky, specifically individuals living in the Beecher Terrace neighborhood. Beecher Terrace is a low-income area that the majority of detainees lived in. Because individuals grew up in poverty they were predisposed to other risk factors that increased their likelihood of becoming a juvenile delinquent and an adult offender later on in life. Two major issues in the state of Kentucky were the over-crowdedness in the prisons and the high cost to incarcerate individuals. The cost to incarcerate a child was $87,000 a year for non-violent offenses. Most juveniles ended up arrested and in juvenile detention centers because of habitual truancy and disregard for parental authority. This film went on to discuss ways to reduce incarceration cost and address the reason why the youth from Beecher Terrace seemed destined to go prison.

The trend of African American males between the ages of 25 and 29 has seen a dramatic increase of incarceration. Attention has been focusing on areas of housing, education, and healthcare but the most prominent problem for African American males is the increase in the incarceration rate. African American males between the ages of 25 and 29 incarceration rate has been thought, by many, to be caused by economic factors such as under employment or unemployment, poor housing, lack of education, and lack of healthcare. Yet, others believe it is due to the imbalance of minorities within the criminal justice system, such as judges, lawyers, and lawmakers.

“The system is not fair. Institutional racism is alive and well in the juvenile justice system as it is in the criminal justice system, due to racial disparity and bias in the court room” (Jones, Bridgett). This is a statement that plagues many people involved in the justice systems. There are huge racial disparities throughout the world. Post-Slavery: the early development of the Race/Crime Connection, Profiling: Racializing possible cause, and differential bias involvement as well as institutional racism. We can work on having better policies and procedures driven into police practices and we need to make sure people of color are not excluded from juries to stop most of the disparity.

Most girls that are arrested and detained have committed non-violent offenses, and they are usually not able to get the help that they need. Parents are the primary reporters of female status offenders in contrast to male status offenders that are reported by school or law officials (Donley, 2007; Godsoe, 2014). This shows that the girls may not actually be criminal, but that the parents are unable to manage the child.

Minority youth are disproportionately represented throughout juvenile justice systems in nearly every state in the nation. Disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in juvenile justice occurs when minority youth come into contact with the system at a higher rate than their white counterparts. African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders and Native Americans comprise a combined one-third of the nation's youth population. Yet they account for over two-thirds of the youth in secure juvenile facilities (Armour & Hammond, 2009).

This article is a critical examination of the role of race across multiple stages in juvenile court outcomes based on peck and Jennings study on the mistreatment of black offenders in the juvenile court system.

It seems throughout the past 30 years, black and ethnic minority young people’s experiences within the criminal justice system and the youth have been negatively associated.

The focus of my literature review will be on minority incarceration, and inequality. However, I feel the focus of this literature review may change along the way as I begin my research. In conducting this research on minority incarceration and inequality, I hope to learn new information that will strengthen and support my knowledge base. I believe that the strengthening of my knowledge base would also help me in working with minority groups, as it would give me a deeper insight into the issues that exist among minority groups, and ways that such groups could be better supported. I would also like to learn about the causes of inequality of youth minority, and incarceration, and the external systems that oppress these minority groups. I ultimately

The most common warning of status offenses are settled or persistent truancy, cursive off, transgress curfew Torah, or occupy alcohol or weed. OJJDP bearing and nourish noble-temper, exact examination, evaluations, and statistical analysis across a range of juvenile justice topical areas. Find overviews of investigate projects and links to research and data analysis, use, resources, and more. This JJDPA prerequisite concentrate on alternatives to trust juveniles into detention facilities for status offenses. OJJDP extend out its discourse through research, policies, and grants to condition and localities.

Over the years, the United States has been focused on finding alternative methods that will reduce crime rates, but there is still a larger issue at hand- the high rates of youth incarceration and racial disparities. The United States is the leading country in the world as far as juvenile incarceration is concerned. Many juveniles are taken to juvenile jails every day and this issue has raised a lot of questions from the public and private organizations. Studies conducted by the U.S Department of Justice’s office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency prevention have shown that the juvenile crime rates and juvenile incarceration rates have significantly been reduced over the past couple of years but there is still more that can be done so that these rates can hopefully, in the near future become very close to non-existent (Puzzanchera, 2013). After spending countless of hour’s conduction research,

Research has found crime rate disparities among races. Specifically, research indicates higher crime rates for African Americans. For example, as shown by Benekos and Puzzanchera (2011), over the past 20 years, over 50 percent of juvenile delinquents transferred to adult courts have been African American. This number is shockingly high as African Americans represent only 13 percent of the population (Benekos & Puzzanchera, 2011). Benekos and Puzzanchera (2011) also stated that in their study, the disproportionate minority representation may be even higher nationally than it appeared. These rates reflect patterns of race and classism inequalities in the United States. Yet, America claims to be the epiphany of equality. America’s juvenile justice system clearly has flaws.