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Seeking an Alternative to Brutal Teen Jails
Op-Ed By Shay Bilchik
5/7/2002
Times-Picayune, Louisiana
Point of View
As a former prosecutor in Florida and former Administrator of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, I know public safety is a primary concern when dealing with violent juvenile offenders. As a prosecutor, I recommended the incarceration of youth in cases where I felt it was appropriate, and I firmly believe that young offenders should be held accountable for their actions. But as I prepare to visit your state this week and hear the worrisome accounts of what is happening in your juvenile justice system, I want to urge Louisiana's leaders and citizens to focus the state's resources on building more community-based services for delinquent youth and to consider closing the Tallullah youth facility.
During my time with the Justice Department, and now as President/CEO of the Child Welfare League of America-the nation's oldest and largest child welfare membership organization, I have led efforts to allocate government resources to delinquency prevention and intervention programs that help troubled youth successfully transition from delinquency to a productive, crime-free life. Although states may always need to incarcerate a small percentage of violent youth offenders, there is a consensus in the child development field that the best way to reduce juvenile crime and recidivism is to replace prison-like facilities with community-based treatment programs and focus resources on at-risk youth before they break the law. States nationwide are closing juvenile correctional facilities in favor of residential and non-residential programs providing an appropriate level of security, as well as drug treatment, mental health services, and education programs, in the neighborhoods where the delinquent youth and their families reside. I am confident Louisiana can join these states on the cutting edge of juvenile justice reform.
With so many of its children needlessly incarcerated, Louisiana is ripe for change. As of 1999, the latest year for which there is comparable national data, Louisiana had the second highest juvenile residential custody rate in the country-significantly higher than the national average. Louisiana, with a population of 4.4 million, has 1,400 youth in correctional facilities. By contrast, Missouri, a state of 5.5 million, has 750 youth in secure facilities, none of which operate under conditions like those at Tallullah.
This year, Louisiana will spend half of its $112 million juvenile justice budget on Tallullah and other juvenile prisons, while spending only a small fraction on community-based rehabilitation programs. Fully 70% of the youth incarcerated in Louisiana committed nonviolent crimes. If just some of the money being spent on youth prisons were redirected, the state could fund a mentoring program to help youth before they engage in risky behavior. Imagine if, instead of youth prisons, Louisiana could fund day reporting centers where delinquent youth live at home and attend daily treatment, education, and recreation programs at a neighborhood church or school.
While some citizens are concerned that closing youth prisons might result in job losses for guards and staff, the fact is that those jobs and others could be created in greater numbers by programs that help, rather than jail young people.
Louisiana can realize this bright future or continue to subject children to the nightmare that too many youth have already endured at Tallullah. At the hearing today on Louisiana's juvenile justice system, legislators in Baton Rouge will hear parents' accounts of what their children experienced at Tallullah. The evidence shows the lack of programming and education and insufficiently trained staff at the facility have resulted in a violent and dangerous environment where youth are more likely to be neglected and beaten than receive the education and treatment they need and deserve. Closing that facility is a crucial first step toward redirecting money from dangerous youth prisons to programs that build communities and give children second chances to become productive citizens.
Shay Bilchik is President and CEO of the Child Welfare League of America, an organization comprised of 1175 agencies serving children, families and communities in every state. CWLA is holding their national juvenile justice and child welfare summit in New Orleans this week.
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