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Cash woes spur some states to cut juvenile-justice programs
Moving youngsters into juvenile prisons breeds more crime, critics say
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Published: December 27, 2008
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Counseling programs and group homes for some of the nation's youngest criminals are being closed, and some of those youngsters are being moved into juvenile prisons in what critics say is a shortsighted move that will lead to more crime and higher costs.
Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia are among states that have cut spending on juvenile justice -- in some cases by more than 20 percent -- because of declining tax collections. Youth advocates say they expect that the recession will bring more cuts next year in other states, affecting programs that try to rehabilitate children rather than just locking them up.
"If you raise a child in prison, you're going to raise a convict," said South Carolina's director of juvenile justice, Bill Byars, who is credited with turning around a system once better known for warehousing children than counseling them and teaching them life skills.
In South Carolina, 22 percent of offenders who go through a counseling and wilderness program run by the Associated Marine Institute, a nonprofit group based in Florida, later break the law, less than half of the recidivism rate for juveniles in large state centers, Byars said.
Now, he has been asked to draw up plans to cut an additional 15 percent from a juvenile-justice budget already cut $23 million, or 20 percent, since June as part of the state's effort to pare $1 billion from its $7 billion budget.
All five of the system's group homes -- which generally house less-violent offenders -- have been closed.
The story is similar in other states. Kentucky is ending a boot camp-style program developed by the National Guard. Virginia is losing behavioral-services staff members and a center that prepares children to go home after serving time, along with smaller camps and community programs. Juveniles in those programs will return to traditional correctional centers.
Florida is cutting three Associated Marine Institute programs to save $1.7 million, part of an effort to cut 4 percent, or $18 million, from the juvenile-justice budget. Advocates are bracing for additional cuts as legislators go back to the Capitol in January to deal with a $2 billion state budget shortfall.
Advocates say they worry most about losing programs, such as group homes, that take children out of large detention centers to give them individual attention.
Juvenile centers see major and minor criminals. Gun, drug, sex and assault offenders may share sleeping quarters and classes with teenagers sentenced for disrupting school or destroying property. Terms can last weeks or, in extreme cases, until youths become adults and are transferred to adult prisons.
Sheila Bedi, the executive director of the Justice Policy Institute based in Washington, said that housing children can cost as much as $600 a day for each child. But the expenses can be much higher when children emerge hardened from big youth prisons, commit more crimes and end up in adult prisons.
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