Juvenile Justice
DID YOU KNOW?
100,000: # of teenagers held in custody in this country On any given day.
70% are detained for non-violent offenses.
2/3 are youth of color.
Minority youth are more likely to be detained, receive harsher sentences, and receive fewer services than white youth who commit similar offenses.
In Philadelphia, African American youth are 55% of the population but make up 80% of the juvenile justice system population.
Juvenile detention has a profoundly negative impact on the mental and physical well-being, education, and employment prospects of young people. The majority of youth who enter the juvenile justice system are likely to have depression, anxiety, substance abuse problems, other mental and behavioral health disorders, or learning disabilities.
In communities where mental health and addiction services are scarce youth are often warehoused in juvenile detention facilities as a last resort. Many youth never receive the assessment and treatment service they need, and conditions during incarceration tend to exacerbate mental health problems. Suicide in juvenile detention facilities is more than four times as high as the rate among youth in the general population.
Juvenile detention also interrupts the education of these youth and many have difficulty returning to school. Inadequate educational programs given a low priority in juvenile corrections, the mobility of adjudicated youth, and poorly developed linkages between public schools and institutional settings contribute to the academic problems of incarcerated youth. In fact, 59 percent of incarcerated youth who receive remedial education services during detention do not return to school after release or drop out within five months after re-enrolling. High school dropouts are more likely to face higher unemployment, poorer health, and substantially lower wages than those who successfully complete high school.
Through the work of its fellows, Stoneleigh Foundation is interested in helping to address these and other challenges facing children served by the juvenile justice system. One solution lies in bridging the boundaries between the juvenile justice system, education system and physical and mental health providers to help troubled kids get the services they need. There are many other possible solutions, and we award fellowships to talented individuals with innovative ideas of their own.