Threat to safety and security: An assessment of security needs for Alaska's juvenile detention facilities

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, girls and women represented one of the fastest growing populations within the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Since the spread of COVID-19, suggestions were provided to juvenile justice bodies, encouraging a reduction of youth arrests, detainments, and quicker court processing. Yet, the research comparing peri-COVID-19 changes for girls and boys is lacking, with an oversight to gender trends and rural and urban differences. This study used Juvenile Intake and Assessment Center (JIAC) data from a rural Midwestern state to look at rural and urban location trends for both boys and girls. Results suggest rural communities are responding differently to girls’ behaviors, revealing a slower decline in intakes compared to boys and youth in urban areas.

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Girls in Juvenile Detention Facilities

Gender, Psychology, and Justice ◽

10.18574/nyu/9781479819850.003.0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Kendra R. Brewster ◽

Kathleen M. Cumiskey

Keyword(s):

Service Learning ◽

Justice System ◽

Life Stories ◽

Social Contexts ◽

Juvenile Detention ◽

Treatment Programs ◽

Detention Facility ◽

Girls Of Color ◽

Detention Facilities

This chapter examines the experiences of incarcerated girls who participated in a service learning course that paired them with college mentors in a juvenile detention facility. The course defined the girls as agents in social contexts of inequality, rather than as poor girls of color, and honored their voices as they discussed the issues that were most important to their lives in the community. It also provided the opportunity to examine the girls’ experiences of detention in light of their life stories, and to understand girls’ involvement with the justice system and incarceration as a form of abandonment by society, institutions, and families. This chapter highlights the paucity of treatment programs specifically designed for incarcerated girls and describes how practitioners can create moments of healing in a system designed to punish and dehumanize.

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Representative Bureaucracy and Youth Violence in Juvenile Detention Facilities

Public Administration Research ◽

10.5539/par.v4n2p63 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 63

Author(s):

Ginger Silvera

Keyword(s):

Los Angeles ◽

Youth Violence ◽

Juvenile Detention ◽

Representative Bureaucracy ◽

Incarcerated Youth ◽

Theory Approach ◽

And Gender ◽

Detention Officers ◽

Minority Interests ◽

Detention Facilities

This exploratory study uses the representative bureaucracy theory to consider the racial representative role, which suggests that administrators who are minorities are more inclined to represent minority interests. This research examined if racial identity and gender was related to detention officers’ perceptions of themselves as advocates for same race and same gender to incarcerated youth and to understand what they perceive are the causes for youth violence. A qualitative study was done on individuals who worked with inmates at the Los Angeles County juvenile detention facilities. The grounded theory approach was used for data analysis by observing common responses among participants. The results of this analysis indicate that detention officers are more likely to pursue the advocate role, especially when officers share the same race and gender to minors.

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Mental Health Care of Detained Youth and Solitary Confinement and Restraint Within Juvenile Detention Facilities

Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America ◽

10.1016/j.chc.2015.08.003 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 71-80 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Kevin Whitley ◽

John S. Rozel

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Care ◽

Mental Health Care ◽

Juvenile Detention ◽

Solitary Confinement ◽

Detention Facilities

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Juvenile Justice Reform and the Difference it Makes: An Exploratory Study of the Impact of Policy Change on Detention Worker Attitudes

Crime & Delinquency ◽

10.1177/0011128794040001003 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 37-53 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Gordon Bazemore ◽

Todd J. Dicker ◽

Ron Nyhan

Keyword(s):

Policy Implementation ◽

Exploratory Study ◽

Juvenile Detention ◽

Staff Attitudes ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Punitive Attitudes ◽

Worker Attitudes ◽

The Difference ◽

The Impact ◽

Detention Facilities

Despite increasing interest in policy implementation and reform, few studies have examined the impact of criminal justice reforms on staff attitudes. This article compares several dimensions of staff attitudes in two similar juvenile detention facilities: one that has undergone significant reform in policy and practice governing staff/detainee interaction and one that has not. Based on survey data gathered from workers in both facilities in the fall of 1991 (N = 109), exploratory findings reveal significant differences between workers in the two facilities in punitive attitudes, but few differences in other attitudes. Implications for understanding both behavioral and cognitive impacts of reforms are discussed.

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