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02-08-2009, 11:14 PM
By MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press Writer Mead Gruver, Associated Press Writer – 13 mins ago
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – When Erica Olivares ran away from home at age 16, the penalty was not a stern lecture — it was a month in Laramie County jail. Soon, under the tutelage of adult criminals, she was addicted to drugs. "Methamphetamine, I'd never even heard about that. And I heard about that in there," said Olivares, now 26.
Legally, she should never have been in position to learn such harsh lessons. Runaways are not supposed to be put in jail, let alone meet adult lawbreakers on the inside, under a 34-year-old federal law called the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.
Yet year after year, some states disregard key parts of the law with little consequence, an Associated Press examination has found. Those states included Wyoming, Mississippi, South Carolina and Washington in 2006, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act.
The federal law provides funds for compliance, money that can be withheld for failure to comply, just as millions in federal highway funds can be lost by states not setting a drinking age of 21. But the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act provides far less grant money — from $600,000 to about $7.5 million annually per state. This is less than the cost of building juvenile lockups and hiring guards trained to work with juveniles. States feel less public pressure to comply, juvenile advocates say.
The U.S. Department of Justice, which administers the act, has a policy of not naming publicly the noncompliant states and not disclosing how those states have run afoul of the law. As a result, many kids become victims, advocates say.
"Kids' lives are literally at stake," said Liz Ryan, executive director of the Campaign for Youth Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based group that lobbies to keep youths out of jail. "They can be harmed in adult jail, they can be harmed in juvenile correctional facilities."
The Senate Judiciary Committee began debating renewal of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act in 2008. The process bogged down but is expected to resume in the new Congress. Ryan said she's hopeful that the Obama administration will be on board to improve the law significantly and release to the public more information gathered under the act.
Advocates say the law's renewal is a good time to open up procedures, require every state to have a full-time compliance monitor and reverse steep cuts in federal funding for juvenile justice programs.
The law contains four core areas:
- First, juveniles generally should not be held in adult jail.
- Second, if they are put in an adult jail — for an adult felony or if space isn't immediately available at a juvenile facility — they must be separated from adult inmates.
- Third, juveniles should not be locked up for age-specific crimes, such as running away or possessing alcohol.
- Finally, states should not lock up minority youth at a higher rate than other kids.
The states in violation have remained largely unknown over the years — to advocates and even elected officials. U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., a member of the Judiciary Committee, has said he's had trouble obtaining information.
"Congress does not receive reports on whether a state has met the standards in the act, and states are not required to publish their state plans. The result has been a serious lack of transparency and accountability in compliance," Kennedy said in a statement to the AP.
It was only after a six-month, back-and-forth process under FOIA that the AP obtained records of states' compliance from the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The office said it doesn't routinely name noncompliant states because it doesn't want to embarrass them.
"I don't think it's ever a good customer-friendly service to embarrass somebody, do you?" said Greg Thompson, an office administrator who works with states to comply with the law. "I think we achieve more by working collegially with the states rather than trying to work adversarially with them."
Records released to AP show Mississippi has complied with fewer areas of the law than any other state — except perhaps Wyoming, which hasn't participated in the law since 1993.
In 2006, Mississippi locked up nearly twice as many youths for crimes related to their age and sent eight times as many youths to adult jails as the federal standard allows. In addition, Mississippi has run into trouble year after year for jailing too many minority youths.
Sheila Bedi, former director of the Mississippi Youth Justice Project who now heads the Justice Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., said for years, Mississippi wasn't committed to developing a modern approach to juvenile justice.
For not complying, the federal government annually reduces part of Mississippi's federal juvenile justice funding by 20 percent for each area in violation. For fiscal year 2007, the state received $240,000 instead of $600,000.
"It all comes down to resources," Bedi said. "They're not getting resources because they're not in compliance. They can't get in compliance without the resources."
Mississippi officials said they're working to get the state back on board. They're hoping to get more state funding for new facilities and employees to work with troubled kids.
Continued...
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – When Erica Olivares ran away from home at age 16, the penalty was not a stern lecture — it was a month in Laramie County jail. Soon, under the tutelage of adult criminals, she was addicted to drugs. "Methamphetamine, I'd never even heard about that. And I heard about that in there," said Olivares, now 26.
Legally, she should never have been in position to learn such harsh lessons. Runaways are not supposed to be put in jail, let alone meet adult lawbreakers on the inside, under a 34-year-old federal law called the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.
Yet year after year, some states disregard key parts of the law with little consequence, an Associated Press examination has found. Those states included Wyoming, Mississippi, South Carolina and Washington in 2006, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act.
The federal law provides funds for compliance, money that can be withheld for failure to comply, just as millions in federal highway funds can be lost by states not setting a drinking age of 21. But the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act provides far less grant money — from $600,000 to about $7.5 million annually per state. This is less than the cost of building juvenile lockups and hiring guards trained to work with juveniles. States feel less public pressure to comply, juvenile advocates say.
The U.S. Department of Justice, which administers the act, has a policy of not naming publicly the noncompliant states and not disclosing how those states have run afoul of the law. As a result, many kids become victims, advocates say.
"Kids' lives are literally at stake," said Liz Ryan, executive director of the Campaign for Youth Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based group that lobbies to keep youths out of jail. "They can be harmed in adult jail, they can be harmed in juvenile correctional facilities."
The Senate Judiciary Committee began debating renewal of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act in 2008. The process bogged down but is expected to resume in the new Congress. Ryan said she's hopeful that the Obama administration will be on board to improve the law significantly and release to the public more information gathered under the act.
Advocates say the law's renewal is a good time to open up procedures, require every state to have a full-time compliance monitor and reverse steep cuts in federal funding for juvenile justice programs.
The law contains four core areas:
- First, juveniles generally should not be held in adult jail.
- Second, if they are put in an adult jail — for an adult felony or if space isn't immediately available at a juvenile facility — they must be separated from adult inmates.
- Third, juveniles should not be locked up for age-specific crimes, such as running away or possessing alcohol.
- Finally, states should not lock up minority youth at a higher rate than other kids.
The states in violation have remained largely unknown over the years — to advocates and even elected officials. U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., a member of the Judiciary Committee, has said he's had trouble obtaining information.
"Congress does not receive reports on whether a state has met the standards in the act, and states are not required to publish their state plans. The result has been a serious lack of transparency and accountability in compliance," Kennedy said in a statement to the AP.
It was only after a six-month, back-and-forth process under FOIA that the AP obtained records of states' compliance from the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The office said it doesn't routinely name noncompliant states because it doesn't want to embarrass them.
"I don't think it's ever a good customer-friendly service to embarrass somebody, do you?" said Greg Thompson, an office administrator who works with states to comply with the law. "I think we achieve more by working collegially with the states rather than trying to work adversarially with them."
Records released to AP show Mississippi has complied with fewer areas of the law than any other state — except perhaps Wyoming, which hasn't participated in the law since 1993.
In 2006, Mississippi locked up nearly twice as many youths for crimes related to their age and sent eight times as many youths to adult jails as the federal standard allows. In addition, Mississippi has run into trouble year after year for jailing too many minority youths.
Sheila Bedi, former director of the Mississippi Youth Justice Project who now heads the Justice Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., said for years, Mississippi wasn't committed to developing a modern approach to juvenile justice.
For not complying, the federal government annually reduces part of Mississippi's federal juvenile justice funding by 20 percent for each area in violation. For fiscal year 2007, the state received $240,000 instead of $600,000.
"It all comes down to resources," Bedi said. "They're not getting resources because they're not in compliance. They can't get in compliance without the resources."
Mississippi officials said they're working to get the state back on board. They're hoping to get more state funding for new facilities and employees to work with troubled kids.
Continued...