OJJDP News @ a Glance December 2024 | OJJDP Remains Committed to Keeping Kids Out of Adult Correctional Facilities | Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Stock photo of a diverse group of adults and youth linking arms outdoors

Young people must never be incarcerated in adult jails and prisons. OJJDP advocates for a justice system that treats children as children—respecting their developmental needs, providing them opportunities for growth, protecting them from harm, and serving all youth equitably. No child should be exposed to the dangers inherent in adult correctional facilities.

Youth incarcerated in adult facilities before age 18 are at risk for numerous dire effects. Adult facilities are larger than youth facilities and have fewer staff per resident; with fewer staff and a larger facility population, the needs of young people are more likely to go unnoticed. Youth in adult facilities are also more likely to be held in isolation, which is associated with increased depression, hopelessness, and a heightened risk of death by suicide.

A recent cohort study of nearly 9,000 individuals who were incarcerated in adult correctional facilities before age 18 found their risk for early death (between ages 18 and 39) was 33 percent higher than for peers who were not incarcerated before age 18. The research summarized some of the other dangers young people face in adult jails and prisons. When compared with their peers in youth facilities, young people held in adult facilities:

JJDPA Protects Youth From Detention With Adults

As the 1974 passage of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) demonstrated, the American judicial system has long recognized the dangers youth face when detained with adults in adult facilities.

The JJDPA sought to protect youth by establishing national standards for their custody and care in the juvenile justice system. The law’s initial “core requirements” for states included separating youth from adults in secure facilities—the “sight and sound separation” requirement. In 1980, amendments to the JJDPA added the “jail removal” core requirement, instructing states to “remove juveniles from jails or lockups for adults,” except for limited periods of time prior to their release or transport to an appropriate youth placement.

In 2018, the Juvenile Justice Reform Act expanded the “jail removal” provision to include the removal of youth who are charged as adults. Previously, the provision referred only to minors facing delinquency charges. If a court determines that it is necessary to hold a youth in an adult facility, the court must conduct regular hearings to review the situation and ensure the youth's safety.

The “jail removal” and “sight and sound separation” requirements work in tandem, and have significantly reduced the number of children held in adult facilities. Compliance reports show that 89 percent of the 50 states, 5 territories, and the District of Columbia were compliant with the jail removal requirement in fiscal year 2023.

Are less likely to receive needed treatment, counseling, education, and mentoring.
Are at heightened risk for physical and sexual assault.
Report “substantially greater” rates of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder.
Exhibit higher rates of misconduct and violence, which can result in disciplinary measures that isolate them further.

Finally, incarcerating youth in adult facilities is an ineffective deterrent for unlawful behavior. For example, when compared to peers processed by the juvenile justice system, youth transferred to the adult criminal justice system are 34 percent more likely to be rearrested for felony crimes, including both violent and nonviolent felonies.

Historically, states have responded to increases in youth crime—both actual and perceived—with policies that resulted in increased numbers of young people incarcerated in adult jails and prisons, a 2024 OJJDP literature review found. Between 1992 and 2000, for example, 45 states passed or amended laws that made it easier to prosecute youth as adults. The number of youth in adult prisons more than doubled between 1990 and 2000, thanks in part to the “superpredator” narrative that erroneously predicted a national scourge of youth who murdered and raped.

Transferring youth to the adult criminal justice system “typically increases rather than decreases rates of violence among transferred youth,” a task force appointed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded in 2007. In the years since, many states have repealed harsh sentencing and adult transfer laws, leading to fewer young people detained in adult facilities. The number of youth incarcerated in adult prisons or jails declined by nearly 80 percent between 2008 and 2021, for example, from a peak of 10,420 to a low of 2,250. This has corresponded with rapidly falling arrest and crime rates, demonstrating that treating children as children helps to reduce offending.

The youth justice field currently faces new challenges, however, as lawmakers in some states advocate for a return to punitive policies. Some point to recent federal data showing a one-year increase in youth arrests and increases in certain types of youth crime. While these data are true, it is also true that fewer than 1 percent of youth were arrested for any offense in 2022, and youth arrests for violent crime—including murder, robbery, and aggravated assault—declined 67 percent from 2006 to 2020. The federal data also confirm that adults—not youth—are responsible for more than 90 percent of violent crimes.

“It is vital that we approach and understand crime statistics in context. Misinterpreting and making false conclusions imperils young lives,” says OJJDP Administrator Liz Ryan. “History has shown that incarcerating youth in adult jails and prisons is both ineffective and cruel. We must not turn back.”

Resources:

OJJDP developed Reentry Starts Here: A Guide for Youth in Long-Term Juvenile Corrections or Treatment Programs to help youth in placement plan for their reentry to the community. The toolkit is designed for use by youth and is also an important resource for their families, youth advocates, and others in youth-serving professions.

OJJDP’s Policies and Procedures Manual for Monitoring Compliance With Core Requirements of the Formula Grants Program Authorized Under Title II, Part B, of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act is a resource to help states fulfill the “jail removal,” “sight and sound,” and other JJDPA provisions.

Date Created: December 18, 2024