Mass Incarceration Starts Young - Podcast
"The United States locks up more people than any country in the world. That starts young: Roughly a million kids a year get caught up in the criminal justice system. In Caught, a new podcast from WNYC, we'll listen as some of those young people tell their stories over nine episodes. They'll help us understand how we got here--and how we might help, rather than just punish troubled youth. Welcome to Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice. Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice is supported, in part, by the Anne Levy Fund, Margaret Neubart Foundation, the John and Gwen Smart Family Foundation, and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project." Listen now.
Illinois’ use of five state prisons – incarcerating about 425
juveniles – has a direct operational cost of about $514 per youth, per day.
This cost does not including education, services, or aftercare. However,
alternatives to youth incarceration save money up front and provide long-term
safety benefits. The report states “youth incarceration is the costliest
response to delinquency – in upfront costs, hidden costs, youth outcomes, and
societal costs. Even for high-risk youth, the costs of the choice to imprison
outstrip other, less damaging approaches.”
“Strong communities are key to success.” Illinois needs to
increase funding for youth justice reinvestment programs and expand the
capacity of local nonprofits that provide state social services to youth and
families.
Vincent Schiraldi on
Parole and Probation
Vincent Schiraldi started his career in criminal justice reform in
1981, although he always knew that he wanted to dedicate his life to helping
people, or as he humbly states to be “in the human services field.” Schiraldi
started working at the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, and
then went on to create two nonprofits, the Center on Juvenile and Criminal
Justice in San Francisco and our very own Justice Policy Institute. Today, at
the Justice Lab at Columbia University he is a leading voice in criminal
justice reform, specifically in regards to parole and probation.
Schiraldi has two reports out on parole and probation, one from a national perspective and the other focused on New York
State.
Since the creation of the parole and probation systems,
they have deviated from their original intent and have become a trigger to mass
incarceration. Schiraldi states that “nationwide there are almost five million
people on probation and parole. That’s more people than live in half of U.S.
states, one in 53 adults. It was never meant to be that big and it’s now a
processing-back-to-prison environment.”
In an article that Schiraldi
co-authored with Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center
at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, they state that when looking at the
quality of justice, we often only measure its success by recidivism rate -
which is “inadequate and often misleading.” Instead of focusing on recidivism
rates, we should focus on alternatives to incarceration and improving what
systems we already have in place - such as parole and probation, which were
originally created to help people who are incarcerated. Highlights -
- “[Probation and parole were] originally meant to be alternatives
to prison, they now have become tripwires and triggers to mass incarceration.”
- “Nationwide there are almost five million people on probation and
parole. That’s more people than live in half of U.S. states, one in 53 adults.
It was never meant to be that big and it’s now a processing-back-to-prison
environment.”
- On Less is More in New York report: “Twenty leading probation and
parole administrators signed on to our report, which calls for ultimately cutting
the systems they run in half and to reduce technical violations that
lead back to prison.”
- “There’s a lot of research showing that community cohesion and
resilience makes communities safer, not just more police and more prisons.”
- On Rikers Island: “New York’s already the least incarcerated and
safest big city in the country. We’re going to do something that no U.S. city
has done.”
Finding Strength Through Poetry - Poetry and Profiles
“Once you’ve been behind bars, words can feel like freedom.”
Formerly incarcerated people are now finding a new voice through
poetry, thanks to the Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop. This workshop
helps young men find a way to give expression to their lives during and after
incarceration. Since 2002, the program has worked with teenagers charged and
imprisoned as adults in the D.C. Jail and the federal prison system.
