Juvenile Offenders: Closed Facilities

Secure facilities, also referred to as closed facilities, are utilized to closely monitor the movements of residents and to restrict its resident's access to the community (Elrod & Ryder, 2014). The option of housing juveniles within secured facilities represents the most restrictive option available within the juvenile courts (Elrod & Ryder, 2014). Today, evidence supports that isolation, mechanical restraints, and physical restraints are commonly overutilized within some facilities, which poses a risk of harm to juveniles housed within these facilities (Elrod & Ryder, 2014). For example, during the year 1994, a large-scale study revealed that the isolation of juveniles is commonly overused (Elrod & Ryder, 2014). Overall, the argument lies within the fact that secure facilities are often overcrowded and often utilized for extensive use of expensive and often ineffective treatment of nonviolent juvenile offenders, continuously failing in rehabilitating our youth (Elrod & Ryder, 2014).

My opinion is based on the fact that research supports the fact that juvenile detention centers are intended to temporarily house high-risk juvenile offenders in order to ensure that the youth appears for court hearings (Austin, Johnson, & Weitzer, 2005). In addition, this type of confinement was set to protect the community from recidivism (Austin, Johnson, & Weitzer, 2005). Although this fact is clear, our nation continues to utilize secure confinement to house juveniles who do not meet the high-risk offender criteria equaling approximately 70 percent of juveniles detained for nonviolent offenses (Austin, Johnson, & Weitzer,