According to a new report, there are now statistics to prove that with the constructive mixture of both dropping crime rates and new reforms posed to the juvenile criminal justice system over the last few years, the number of minors and juveniles in state prisons across the country is beginning to significantly decrease. The report, focuses primarily on Texas as the example, however data will confirm that nearly all 50 states are experiencing the same decreases in juvenile prison populations. Compiled and published by the Council of State Governments Justice Center, the report delves into the marginal improvements to Texas’ battle with high juvenile detention and re-offense rates beginning in 2007, with similar improvements shown in states such as Connecticut, Louisiana, and Arizona among others.
In a series of tactical moves within the prison system’s infrastructure, Texas has been able to dramatically drop the number of detained minors and have been able to successfully curb the amount of re-offenders who wind up being arrested in the future. These reforms were set into motion after a series of harsh assaults on minors by other inmates as well as corrections officers inside Texas’ juvenile state-run detention facilities. A bipartisan push to improve the conditions and operations of state-run prisons ultimately set these new reforms into motion which have resulted in Texas’ dropping its juvenile prison population by over two thirds since 2007.
These new reforms feature measures to ensure that minors convicted of misdemeanors can stay in local and county facilities rather than be sent to state-run detention centers, thus keeping kids close to home. Furthermore, Texas has put strong emphasis on creating diversion programs for minors as well.
In the past six years, Texas has also allotted nearly $70 million dollars to the improvement mental health services and reduction programs for minors. That, along with the merger of multiple departments to form one single Texas Juvenile Justice Department, has proven to directly aid in the decreasing of minor prison populations. Moreover, a key switch in operations has also proven to go a long way in curbing this issue in states across the nation. Segregating offenders who have been convicted of misdemeanors and felonies shows a significant drop in re-arrests. According to the report, mixing high-risk offenders with medium and low-risk juvenile offenders creates a noteworthy probability that lower-risk offenders will be negatively influenced by felony offenders inside the prison system.
Furthermore, the report finds that youth were 21 percent more likely to commit a second offense within a year after sentences served in state-run facilities as opposed to local and county prisons. And although Texas seems to finally be making the right moves, downward trends in other states have already shown that other successful measures have been taken all across the United States. Arizona for example has cut its juvenile incarceration numbers by nearly 60 percent in the last 15 years.
With national incarceration rates still at nearly all-time highs, more and more states are looking to take pages out of Arizona, Rhode Island, and California’s books. Finding progressive means to curb juvenile detention numbers and keep kids from coming back into prisons after their initial offenses is becoming more and more important and with new statistics to prove success, Texas and many other states across the country are beginning to follow suit.
Via: The Washington Post
