Nationally, on any given night, approximately 81,000 youth are confined to juvenile facilities and 10,000 children are held in adult jails and prisons. Approximately 1 in 10 young male high school dropouts is incarcerated or in juvenile detention. For African Americans, that number is 1 in 4. Research shows that just over two million youth under the age of 18 were arrested in 2008. Of these two million, about 95 percent had not been accused of violent crimes. In 2010, of the nearly 100,000 youth under the age of 18 who were serving time in a juvenile residential placement facility, 26 percent had been convicted of property crimes only, such as burglary, arson, or theft. Access to education both stems the tide of incarceration and improves inmates chances of re-acclimating to society after their release.
“Since last week, when the city’s youngest offenders began moving into Horizon Juvenile Center, there have been at least five violent episodes. These brawls among inmates have caused dozens of injuries to correction officers assigned to the center, union leaders said.“
New York Times
October 3, 2018
Read More“New York State’s “Raise the Age” law requires adolescents be housed in detention centers — not adult jails — where they can receive age-appropriate services. In the city, 16- and 17-year-old detainees will be moved from Rikers Island by Oct. 1. In 2017, New York and North Carolina were the last two states to stop automatically prosecuting adolescents as adults.“
New York Times
September 28, 2018
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