Problems with Juvenile Justice
According to the United States Department of Justice, by the beginning of the 21st century, one in four residents of the USA were under the age of 18. Therefore, providing services for this significant segment of the population necessarily is a priority.
Because such a large number of U.S. citizens are minors, the juvenile justice system in the country is facing demands on resources that have not been seen before in the history of the nation. Consequently, a number of particular problems associated with the juvenile justice system have been identified over the course of the past several years.
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Placement Options
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With growing numbers of minors entering the juvenile justice system each and every month, stretched resources have created problems associated with the proper placement of offenders. Pursuant to the laws governing juvenile justice systems in all 50 states, when a juvenile is determined to be a juvenile offender as the result of an adjudication, the court is obliged to place that minor into the least restrictive environment possible. In other words, an adjudicated juvenile offender should not be placed into a "lock down" detention center unless there is no other appropriate placement for that child.
Although the actual offense for which the juvenile is adjudicated as committing is a guiding issue, when at all reasonable a juvenile is to be placed back into his or her home environment and provided services through community-based programs. In regard to this presumptive placement option, there simply are not enough resources available to provide appropriate services to a juvenile offender serving a probationary term from the home of his or her family.
At the other end of the spectrum, detention facilities are overcrowded and also understaffed. There are neither enough beds nor enough supportive and therapeutic resources available to these facilities to address appropriately the needs of juvenile offenders.
The primary goal of the juvenile justice system is reform. The objective is to provide the juvenile appropriate services in an effort to get the youthful offender on a course in which he or she will not break the law again in the future.
Mental Health Services
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Both the U.S. Justice Department and experts who have written about the juvenile justice system agree that a significant majority of juvenile offenders are afflicted with different types of mental health conditions, disorders and problems. These experts include Robert Agnew, author of the recently published "Juvenile Delinquency: Causes and Control."
A major problem associated with the juvenile justice system is the lack of appropriate and suitable mental health services. This includes a lack of community-based services for juvenile offenders who are not in detention. Moreover, detention facilities in many instances also lack an appropriate level of suitable and sufficient mental health services for juvenile offenders.
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Addiction Treatment Resources
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Justice Department research underscores that a significant percentage of juvenile offenders break the law in the first instance either to obtain illegal drugs or while using these illicit substances. Yet another of the primary problems associated with the juvenile justice system is a lack of sufficient addiction and substance abuse treatment resources.
As is the case with mental health services, the lack of appropriate drug and alcohol abuse and addiction treatment resources is found both in association with community-based programs for juvenile offenders and within detention centers.
Educational Programming
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A majority of juvenile offenders are school "drop-outs" or at least minors with very poor school attendance records. This serious deficiency is discussed in a variety of reports and texts, including "Juvenile Delinquency: Prevention, Assessment, and Intervention," written by Kirk Heilbrun, Naomi E. Sevin Goldstein and Richard E. Redding in 2005.
Providing appropriate educational experiences and programming within the juvenile justice system significantly is deficient at this juncture in time. At best, an effort sometimes is made to ensure that a offender does obtain a GED while involved in the juvenile justice system. As is noted in "Juvenile Delinquency: Prevention, Assessment, and Intervention" as well as in U.S. Justice Department studies and companion reports, expanding educational availabilities within the juvenile justice system needs to be a primary focus.
Recidivism Prevention Resources
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Perhaps the most significant of all problems associated with the juvenile justice system is the high recidivism rate. Although the U.S. Justice Department does not maintain specific statistics in this regard, the agency does note that nearly all states continue to report a high percentage of juveniles re-offending after serving a term of probation or detention within the juvenile justice system.
The four primary reasons why recidivism rates are high within the juvenile justice system are a lack of appropriate placement options, insufficient mental health services, inadequate substance abuse treatment programs and slim educational opportunity. In the end, the inadequacies and problems of the juvenile justice system have created a constant cycle in which minors head in, out and back in to the juvenile justice system.
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