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Books Not Bars

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.

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[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.