Juvenile Incarceration Essay

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Recommended: Mental health in juvenile offenders

The high rates of mental health problems among the incarcerated youths can be directly attributed to the juvenile incarceration policies. Despite public concerns against the use of incarceration on the youths, the number of incarcerated youths has not gone down. This paper is set up to review the juvenile incarceration policies and its contribution to the prevalence of mental health problems among incarcerated youths. With a third of those who are diagnosed with mental health problems showing that they developed the problems after being incarcerated, it is high time to abandon the incarceration policies in favor of more rehabilitative systems which do not expose the children to the conditions of incarceration. Incarceration in Juvenile …show more content…

According to Yoder, Whitaker, and Quinn (2017), recent years have shown that although detention as well as incarceration is necessary for a given small percentage of deliquescent youths, long-term confinement experiences can lead to more harm than good to the youths, and it often lead to continued offending as well as recidivism. Instead, the use of community based programs have proven that it can lead to decreased re-offending for all youths including those who commit violent and serious crimes. Additionally, the public opinion in the United States concerning the use of punitive approaches while dealing with the youths have been changing as more people suggest the use of a more rehabilitative system. However, these community based systems and provisions have been left to take care of the mental health needs of the youth which are always not well addressed. A research by Zajac, Sheidow, and Davis (2015) showed that many of the juvenile justice systems do not have proper equipment to deal with the youths having mental health disorders. The typical mental health services offered to the youths in juvenile justice systems such as detention are often unavailable or inadequate. The inadequate mental health services are helped by a number of barriers. The barriers include lack of proper training of the staff and inadequate …show more content…

The mental health problems which the youths experience under incarceration reduces their ability to learn, increases their likelihood of engaging in self-destructives behaviors such as suicide, and reduces their ability to earn in the future due to reduced ability to stay in their jobs. The suggested alternative correctional systems should aim at ensuring that adequate mental health services are available through properly trained personnel, improved conditions, and proper allocation of

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