Research and experience have shown that the youth prison model – placing delinquent youth into large, distant, prison like facilities – is fraught with high costs, poor outcomes, and endemic abuse. It has historically been resistant to reform. These negative impacts are not evenly distributed, but are disproportionately visited upon youth of color. The Future of Youth Justice should be grounded in communities, rather than institutions, and the youth prison model phased out in favor of community programming and small, rehabilitative facilities near youths’ home communities.
Over the last 15 years, institutionalization of youth has dropped by more than half and two-thirds of the youth prisons of over 200 beds have closed. Researchable examples of deinstitutionalization are springing up nationally, along with a cadre of youth correctional administrators committed to charting a new course for the future of youth justice.
The Justice Lab will convene juvenile justice administrators from around the country to form Juvenile Justice Administrators for Justice, dedicated to shaping a future of youth justice that no longer relies on youth prisons. Additionally, the Justice Lab will launch a series of case studies of state and local efforts to eliminate or downsize youth prisons.
Does Keeping Youth Close to Home Really Matter? Pre-publication Discussion. Marsha Weissman, Vincent Schiraldi, and Kendra Bradner. March 2018.
Youth Prisons as a Form of Violence: An International Human Rights Perspective. Vincent Schiraldi. 2018.
The Future of Youth Justice: A Community Based Alternative to the Youth Prison Model. Patrick McCarthy, Vincent Schiraldi and Miriam Shark, October 2016.
Cuomo, don’t leave these kids hanging. New York Daily News, March 18, 2018. Vincent Schiraldi and Patrick McCarthy.
It’s time to close all youth prisons. Washington Post, November 10, 2016. Vincent Schiraldi and Marc Schindler.
Florida should shut down youth-detention centers where ‘fight clubs’ thrive. Miami Herald, October 18, 2017. Candice Jones, Patrick McCarthy and Vincent Schiraldi.
Juvenile Prisons: It’s Time to Close ‘Factories of Failure.’ The Crime Report, September 26, 2017. Vincent Schiraldi.
Youth prisons don't reform, they damage. USA Today, October 28, 2016. Patrick McCarthy and Vincent Schiraldi.
Why We Need to Shut Down Juvie. The Marshall Project, December 22, 2015. Vincent Schiraldi.
Horrific Conditions in Prisons “Common, not Exceptional,” Schiraldi writes. The Crime Report, November 11, 2015. Vincent Schiraldi.
What Mass Incarceration Looks Like for Young People. The New York Times, November 10, 2015. Vincent Schiraldi.