The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

A recent series of damning reports have underscored the flaws in New York’s juvenile justice system and the urgent need to shut down these facilities. The governor and the State Legislature need to pay attention.

A report by a task force appointed by Gov. David Paterson describes a failing system that damages young people, fails to curb recidivism and eats up millions of tax dollars. Children should be confined only when they present a clear threat to public safety. But the most recent statistics show that 53 percent of the youths admitted to New York’s institutional facilities were placed there for minor nonviolent infractions.

The report also says that judges often send children to these facilities because local communities are unable to help them with mental problems or family issues. But once they are locked up, these young people rarely get the psychiatric care or special education they need because the institutions lack trained staff.

A report from the Justice Department, which has threatened to sue the state, documents the use of excessive and injury-causing force against children in juvenile facilities, often for minor offenses such as laughing too loudly or refusing to get dressed. And last week, the Legal Aid Society of New York City filed a class-action suit on behalf of youths in confinement, arguing that conditions in the system violate their constitutional rights.

Not surprisingly, these institutions do a terrible job of rehabilitation. According to a study of children released from custody between 1991 and 1995, 89 percent of the boys and 81 percent of the girls were eventually rearrested. New York’s facilities are so disastrous and inhumane that state officials recently asked the courts to refrain from sending children to them, except in cases in which they presented a clear danger to the public.

Mr. Paterson’s task force was rightly impressed with Missouri’s juvenile justice system. It has adopted smaller regional facilities that focus on rehabilitation and house troubled youths as close to home as possible in order to involve parents and community groups in the therapeutic process. Missouri also has cut recidivisim rates by smoothing re-entry and helping young people with drug treatment, education or job placement.

New York clearly needs to follow Ms. Carrión’s advice and adopt a Missouri-style system. That means the Legislature will finally have to put the needs of the state’s children ahead of the politically powerful unions and upstate lawmakers who want to preserve jobs — and the disastrous status quo — at all costs.

A version of this article appeared in print on January 6, 2010, on page A22 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/opinion/06wed2.html

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http://blog.simplejustice.us/2010/01/06/children-v-unions.aspx
Simple Justice Blog
Children v. Unions
Posted by SHG at 1/6/2010 7:16 AM

The New York Times editorial contrasts the clash of two sacred cows,
children and unions. As hard as it may be to imagine, the most significant force against the reform of failed criminal justice programs have been the unions, and the politicians who depend on them for financing, representing
prison guards.

It was a brilliant idea to build prisons in depressed upstate locations, where there was land aplenty and rampant unemployment. It took the bad guys away from the masses, and made for a pretty good local economy when people needed it. But along the way, people forget that it wasn't about their having jobs, but about the people they were holding. These people included children.

A report by a task force appointed by Gov. David Paterson describes a
failing system that damages young people, fails to curb recidivism and eats up millions of tax dollars. Children should be confined only when they present a clear threat to public safety. But the most recent statistics show that 53 percent of the youths admitted to New York's institutional facilities were placed there for minor nonviolent infractions.

Not surprisingly, these institutions do a terrible job of rehabilitation. According to a study of children released from custody between 1991 and 1995, 89 percent of the boys and 81 percent of the girls were eventually rearrested. New York's facilities are so disastrous and inhumane that state officials recently asked the courts to refrain from sending children to them, except in cases in which they presented a clear danger to the public. The reports showed that these children were in need of mental health services and education, but they were unable to get the help they needed
within their communities because all the cash flowed upstate to prisons. If you've got prisons, you need to fill them up or all that money is wasted. No one likes to see money wasted.

In the face of these reports, the unions are up in arms. The upstate
politicians are up in arms too, as they don't want to lose their financing or invoke the wrath of their constituents who will lose their jobs.Frankly, it's understandable. It's just not acceptable.

At the extreme end, we have the two Pennsylvania judges, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan, who were placing kids in confinement for a kickback. Trading off the lives of children for upstate jobs isn't entirely different, except that the cash flow is spread out a little broader and it's done in the name of government.

There are some who have given up hope on children, who buy into the
child-predator myth and believe that kids are beyond redemption. If so, then prison is the way to go, keep those nasty children away from good, law-abiding folk. But this clearly doesn't apply to a child who presents no threat of harm to anyone. And even the ones who do are still children. Children, for crying out loud. No one is arguing that they don't do harm and aren't in need of incarceration at times, but that they are not unsalvageable and beyond help.

While there may be argument about what to do with the most violent, the most dangerous, there should be no argument that the vast majority of children who find themselves in some form of juvenile justice scrutiny have the capacity to be helped and to go on to lead happy, productive lives. Unless we warehouse them in upstate prisons, where all hope is lost and no help is found, so that union members can continue to have gainful employment.

It's not that I don't appreciate that prison guards have families and
children of their own to support. It's not that I take lightly the loss of jobs in otherwise depressed counties. It's not that these people don't have legitimate needs of their own. But when the choice is between children and unions, the children must win out. Children cannot be traded for jobs.
Sorry, unions. Sorry, prison guards.