Juvenile justice professionals have been reporting for some time that sentencing practices for juvenile offenders do not work. Roughly every 10 years, one or another commission is formed to assess the situation and each commission comes to this same conclusion, i.e., that important parts of the juvenile justice system are broken.
The most recent New York state report, by the Governor’s Task Force on Transforming Juvenile Justice, confirms that incarcerating children under the age of 16 in New York state prison facilities is attendant with mistreatment and child abuse—even as we are spending approximately $200,000 per incarcerated child per year! The task force report comes on the heels of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation of New York juvenile facilities which documented disturbing incidents of excessive force by prison officials in apparent violation of juveniles’ constitutional rights. The Department of Justice has threatened a lawsuit against New York. A civil class action has already been filed.
