It’s Time to Quit Putting Kids in Adult Prison

Written by Liz Ryan, President and CEO of the Campaign for Youth Justice. This post first appeared on Change.org’s Criminal Justice Blog (7/16/10).

Five years ago this week, 17-year-old David Burgos took his life at Manson Youth Institute, one of Connecticut’s adult prisons for younger offenders. David had been detained on a simple probation violation.

The Connecticut General Assembly immediately responded with legislation to end the practice of automatically prosecuting all 16- and 17-year-olds in adult criminal court and to ban the placement of most of these youth in adult facilities.

In 2006, David Burgos’ mother, Diana Gonzalez, testified before the Connecticut about the danger of treating youth like adults. As she stated, “I know first-hand the consequences…Whose child is next? It could be my neighbor’s child, it could be your neighbor’s child, it could be your child. Put yourselves in these shoes. What decision would you make for your child? How would you want your child treated?”

Other states have initiated similar reforms like Connecticut’s. Just this year, a new law went into effect in Illinois that prevents 17-year-olds from getting automatically prosecuted in adult criminal court. It also removes such youth from detention in adult jails. Mississippi passed similar legislation this session that will take effect in January. And last week, a new law went into effect in Virginia that ends the placement of pre-trial youth in adult jails.

Evidence about the dangers youth face in adult jails and prisons is abundant.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 21% and 13% of all substantiated victims of inmate-on-inmate sexual violence in jails in 2005 and 2006 respectively, were youth under the age of 18. That’s a surprisingly high figure, considering only 1% of jail inmates are juveniles. Youth also have the highest suicide rates of all inmates in jails. Youth are 36 times more likely to commit suicide in an adult jail than in a juvenile detention facility, and 20 times more likely to commit suicide in an adult jail than youth in the general population.

Congress and the Administration now have a critical opportunity to make sure that youth are removed from adult jails nationwide. Will you join the Campaign for Youth Justice in taking a stand?

Last December, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization Act (S. 678), a bill to remove youth from adult jails and prisons. Currently, it’s awaiting Senate floor action. In an April 15th letter, Department of Justice (DOJ) officials told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy that the administration “strongly supports the reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention Act.” (The House held hearings this year and the Education & Labor Committee has not introduced a committee bill yet.)

Six former DOJ officials who previously led the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention have likewise made their support of the bill known, writing in a letter to House and Senate leadership last December that “reauthorizing the JJDPA at this time underscores the critical role of OJJDP and affords us the opportunity to use and build on this knowledge to create greater justice for youth and to make our communities safer and healthier.”

It’s time to take youth out of adult prisons. The research is compelling, and opinion polls overwhelmingly show that the public vehemently opposes placing youth in adult jails and prisons. Public safety would be increased, and taxpayers would no longer see their tax dollars invested in a failed approach.

After all, the human toll of this failed policy can’t be measured in dollars and cents.

As David Burgos’ mother asked the Connecticut legislature after her son’s suicide, “What’s it going to take for us to make the change? Why do we wait for a tragedy? Why does someone like my son have to die before we make a change we know is right? It’s time for us to stop talking about making this change and do it.”