Books Not Bars PSA
By: WITNESS Media Archive
Posted: Jun 26 07
Witnessed: 10789 times
United States
Juvenile justice
juvenile, minor, prison
Partner: Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBCHR)
Youth incarceration in the United States
Children in the United States are being prosecuted as adults and sent to adult prisons with increasing frequency. Though the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners explicitly states that "[y]oung prisoners shall be kept separate from adults,"[1] over 40 states have adopted measures which facilitate the prosecution of juveniles as adult offenders.[2] While juvenile courts have always had provisions for waiving its jurisdiction over the most serious offences (such as homicide or rape), transfers to adult criminal courts were historically limited to only defendants who, in the judgment of the court, could not be rehabilitated under the juvenile justice system. In the past decade, the use of transfers has increased dramatically as societal attitudes towards criminal justice have shifted away from rehabilitation towards retribution and incapacitation.
The fear of the youthful predator has also fueled legislation that allows prosecutors to automatically remove children from juvenile court jurisdiction to try as adults if they are accused of committing a serious crime. The notion of the dangerous young offender persists even as arrest rates for juveniles decreases nationwide.[3] Minority youths are also disparately impacted under the juvenile justice system. Studies have found that children of color are disproportionately waived into criminal court. For example, in states where blacks make up only 7 to 27% of the total population, 60 to 88% of juvenile court waivers involved black youths.[4] Though studies have shown that prosecuting children as adults and incarcerating them in adult prisons have not served as any measurable deterrence in juvenile crime, the ideology that young offenders must be severely punished to prevent them from becoming even more hardened criminals remains prevalent.
The trend towards increased incarceration, lengthier sentences, and jailing younger offenders has placed a burden on the corrections system, where prisons are already overcrowded and bed space is scarce. In recent years, the governmental remedy for this problem has been to build more prisons.
Watch "Books Not Bars" and read more about the incarceration of youth in the United States .
[1] Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, Part I Section 8d.
[2] Human Rights Watch, No Minor Matter at http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/maryland/Maryland-02.htm#P344_39513
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
Books Not Bars (Excerpts)
WITNESS Partner: Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBCHR) Youth incarceration in the United States
United States
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Payday Loan for Juvenile Justice...
By Reilly on Jan 4 09
The United States was founded on the principles of individual freedom, equality and due process
in a democratic society, but in the area of the justice system, these principles have often been challenged..
Nowhere are the principles of human rights and democratic society more at risk today than in the U.S.
juvenile justice system. The United States strongly advocates for the extension of human rights
enforcement throughout the world, but when it relates directly to U.S., there is resistance to theenforcement of those rights by United Nations agencies. So apparently a bunch of states are saving extra cash by cutting juvenile justice programs. In states like South Carolina, programs that focus on counseling, rehabilitation and teaching life skills have helped cut in half the number of juvenile offenders who end up back in the system. But even after all this progress, some states are cutting 20 percent or more of their spending on juvenile justice programs. Obviously, if the number of child criminals who re-offend goes back up, the number of adults who get thrown in the slammer will go up right along with it. I think it’s discouraging that the government is taking more and more money away from prevention and rehabilitation. It’s just going to get spent on punishment later. This article talks about which programs are getting axed in the government’s quest to save extra cash.
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