State recidivism data consistently show that youth who are released from correctional confinement suffer high rates of rearrest, new adjudications/convictions, and reincarceration. For example, a comprehensive state-by-state review of recidivism data from 2011 found that 70% to 80% of youth who left residential correctional programs were rearrested within two or three years of release.
And 45% to 72% of those young people were adjudicated (found to be delinquent in juvenile court) for or convicted (in adult court) for new offenses within three years of release.
A review of most recent data measuring recidivism outcomes for youth returning from correctional facilities in 10 states finds little change in recidivism outcomes. Overall, four of the states (Colorado, Delaware, Texas, and Virginia.) have seen recidivism worsen in recent years, one state saw no change (Illinois.), and five states have seen some improvement (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Maryland).
Studies that track youth over a period of multiple years have found that an alarming share of young people who are incarcerated in youth corrections facilities later get arrested, convicted, and incarcerated in adulthood. For example, in New York State, 89% of boys and 81% of girls released from state youth correctional facilities in the early 1990s were arrested as adults by age 28. Among the boys, 65% were convicted of felonies, and 71% were incarcerated as adults by age 28. A study in South Carolina found that 82% of boys born in 1967 who were incarcerated as juveniles were later imprisoned or placed on probation as adults.
Research studies that control for young people’s backgrounds, offending histories, and other relevant characteristics, find that compared to probation and other community alternatives, incarceration most often results in higher rates of rearrest and reincarceration. A few examples include:
A 2011 analysis found that the states that made the largest reductions in youth incarceration from 1997 to 2007 saw a greater decline in youth arrest rates than states that made smaller reductions or increased youth confinement.
Detention greatly increases the odds that youth will be placed in residential custody if they are found delinquent in court.
Detention also increases the likelihood that youth will be arrested and punished for subsequent delinquent conduct.
Spending time in juvenile detention increases the odds that young people will be arrested and incarcerated in adulthood.
In 2009, an analysis examining youth from Philadelphia and Phoenix who were involved in the Pathways to Desistance study (cited earlier), found essentially no difference in future offending for youth held for 3-6 months vs. 6-9 months, 9-12 months, or more than 12 months. “There is little or no marginal benefit,” the study found, “for retaining an individual in institutional placement longer.”
In Ohio, a 2013 study found that the likelihood of reincarceration for a new crime increased steadily the longer young people remained incarcerated for an initial offense. Whereas 34% of youth who were incarcerated for one month or less were later reincarcerated, that share climbed to 61% for youth for who were incarcerated for 60 months.
In Washington State, a 2020 study found that every additional day spent in detention increased the odds of felony recidivism by one percentage point. Studies in Florida and New York City have also found that longer periods of incarceration lead to higher rates of recidivism.
In a 2014 study, the National Academy of Sciences concluded that that while incarceration is necessary in some cases to protect public safety, “[c]onfinement of juveniles beyond the minimum amount needed to deliver intensive services effectively is not only wasteful economically but also potentially harmful, and it may impede prosocial development.”
Using data from a nationally representative survey that tracked more than 7,000 youth, a 2008 study found that incarceration before age 17 reduced the likelihood of teens graduating from high school by 26% – a far higher rate than for youth who were arrested and involved in juvenile court but not incarcerated.
Since then, several rigorous studies at the state and local levels have also found that incarceration in detention and correctional facilities reduces high school graduation rates.
An analysis from the most recent National Longitudinal Survey of Youth found significant and consistent differences in college attendance, with youth who were not incarcerated more likely to enroll in and complete college than comparable youth who were incarcerated. Another study using data from the same survey found that incarceration in juvenile facilities significantly reduced employment rates and wages and participation in the labor force. A study examining an earlier round of the National Longitudinal Youth Survey found that incarceration in a youth corrections facility led to lower wages, fewer weeks worked, and less job experience by age 39, as well as reduced total educational attainment.
An investigation by the Lexington Herald-Leader documented at least 116 incidents from February 2018 to May 2021 where staff of Kentucky’s state-run youth correctional facilities used excessive force against confined youth. Several of the incidents resulted in serious injuries that sent youth to hospital emergency rooms. In addition to these incidents, the newspaper found that facility employees “engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with youths; used racial slurs and threats of violence; and sometimes failed to provide appropriate supervision, which sometimes led to illegal drugs being smuggled into facilities, youth-on-youth sexual assault and destructive riots requiring police intervention.”
In one incident at the Fayette Regional Juvenile Detention Center in 2020, a member of the facility staff “wrapped his arms around a 17-year-old resident’s neck and dropped him to the floor during a restraint… “’Told you not to try me, n_ _ _ a,’ [the staff member] told the teen, who is Black… ‘You going to prison, n _ _ _ _ r.’”
The worker was suspended for 12 days as a consequence for his behavior, but he continued working for the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice and received a raise just months later. No one from the agency informed the teen’s family about the incident.
A national survey that tracked health outcomes from adolescence into adulthood found that “any length of incarceration was associated with higher odds of having worse adult health.” More specifically, incarceration for 1-12 months increased the likelihood of poor general health in adulthood, and incarceration for more than 12 months increased the likelihood of functional health limitations.
The damage caused by incarceration exacerbates the serious health problems experienced by many youth who enter correctional facilities. Research finds that young people who are incarcerated during adolescence often have health problems. A national survey of youth in custody in 2003 found that two-thirds of the young people had one or more physical health care needs, including dental, vision, or hearing issues (37%); an acute illness (28%); or injury (25%).
Those confined during adolescence also frequently suffer with long-term mental health problems. In the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth cited earlier, young people who were incarcerated for less than one month had higher rates of depression in adulthood than comparable peers who were not incarcerated. Young people who were incarcerated for one year or more were over four times more likely to experience depression and twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts in adulthood than comparable peers who were not incarcerated.
In Cook County (Chicago), Illinois, a 2005 study found that youth who were incarcerated in detention were 4.4 times as likely as youth in the general population to die between the ages of 15 and 24. In Marion County (Indianapolis), Indiana, a 2016 study found that youth involved in the justice system had a 48% higher chance of dying prematurely than the general youth population.Among youth involved in the justice system, those who were incarcerated in detention centers (the equivalent of jails in the adult justice system) or correctional facilities were 1.7 times and 2.5 times more likely to die prematurely, respectively, than youth who were arrested but never confined.
A comprehensive national review in 2015 revealed that systemic or recurring maltreatment or abuse had been clearly documented in the state-funded youth correctional facilities of 29 states and the District of Columbia since 2000, and in 43 states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico since 1970. From 1970 through 2011, 52 lawsuits over conditions of confinement in state-funded youth corrections facilities resulted in court-sanctioned remedies to address systemic problems with violence, physical or sexual abuse by facility staff, or excessive use of isolation and restraints.
Since 2015, the stream of abuse revelations in youth incarceration facilities has continued. Among the multitude of pervasive abuse instances are:
The most recent national survey of youth incarcerated in juvenile facilities, authorized under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, questioned 6,000 incarcerated youth in 2018 and found that 7% reported being victimized sexually in the prior year, most of whom reported sexual victimization that involved force or coercion by facility staff or other youth.
Earlier surveys also documented widespread abuse. A national survey of incarcerated youth conducted in 2008-09 found that among youth who reported being victimized, more than 80% were victimized more than once. One-third of youth who were victimized by staff and 43% of youth who were victimized by other youth were attacked by more than one perpetrator.
In a nationwide survey in 2003, 42% of youth who were incarcerated in correctional facilities said they felt afraid of being attacked by another resident, staff, or both. In addition, 45% said that staff “use force when they really don’t need to,” and 30% said that staff placed youth in solitary confinement as a form of discipline.
A 2014 study of youth in southern California who had recently been released from juvenile facilities found that 77% reported suffering one or more types of physical, sexual, or verbal abuse. The study also found that abuse during incarceration led to greater social and emotional problems following release, including posttraumatic stress reactions, depression symptoms, and continued criminal behavior.
The most recent one-day count of youth in detention (from 2019) found that Black youth were detained at six times the rate of white youth nationwide, while Latinx youth were detained at nearly twice the rate as white youth, and Tribal youth were detained at four times the rate of their white peers.
Youth of color who are referred to court on delinquency charges are far more likely than white youth to be placed in detention. In 2019, Black and Latinx youth were 45% and 55% more likely to be detained, respectively, than non-Hispanic white youth, while Tribal and Asian/Pacific Islander youth were about 25% more likely to be detained.
A 2018 review of disparities research in youth justice found that 22 of 27 analyses (81%) that compared detention decisions regarding Black versus white youth found clear evidence of bias, as did 14 of 16 analyses (88%) that compared detention decisions regarding Latinx versus white youth.
For example, in a 2010 Arizona study (cited earlier), Black, Latinx, and Tribal youth were 49%, 24%, and 93% more likely to be detained than white youth, respectively, even after controlling for offending histories and other relevant factors. A 2018 study that examined court outcomes for more than 50,000 youth in seven Ohio counties found that, non-white youth were “more likely to be detained prior to an adjudication hearing relative to similarly situated [w]hite youth” (after controlling for offense and other relevant factors).
Youth of color are also confined disproportionately at the correctional phase of the juvenile court process, after they have been adjudicated delinquent (the juvenile system’s conviction). The most recent Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (2019) found that the post-adjudication placement rate for Black youth was 3.6 times the rate for non-Hispanic white youth. For Tribal youth, the correctional confinement rate was three times that of white youth. (There were scant disparities for Latinx youth.) Even among the narrower populations of youth who are referred to delinquency court and adjudicated delinquent, Black and Latinx youth were about 40% more likely than white youth to be removed from their homes and placed in facilities in 2019.
Some studies examining court decisions on whether to incarcerate youth after they are found delinquent show that youth of color are significantly more likely to be incarcerated than non-Hispanic white youth with similar characteristics and offending histories. A 2018 review of disparities research found that about half of the analyses that compared secure confinement decisions regarding Black versus white youth and 38% of the analyses that compared secure confinement decisions regarding Hispanic versus white youth documented a clear statistically significant bias. (In many of the other analyses, the results were inconclusive.)
Studies find that significant biases against youth of color are most common in decisions regarding arrest, diversion versus formal processing, and especially detention. These disparities in the early stages cause a snowball effect that leads to substantial cumulative disadvantages for youth of color in later decisions around incarceration in correctional facilities.
More than 500 former residents of New Hampshire’s Sununu Youth Services Center, a 150-year-old juvenile corrections facility, have come forward alleging physical or sexual abuse at the hands of facility staff over the past six decades. More than 150 staff members have been implicated in the abuse, the Boston Globe reported in April 2022. The state’s attorney general launched a criminal investigation in 2019, and 11 former workers were arrested and formally charged with abuse in April 2021.
In its exhaustive investigation of the abuses, the Boston Globe interviewed several youth who had been raped repeatedly by facility staff. One woman described being driven to the woods as a young teen and being raped repeatedly by a staff member in the back seat of his car. When she got pregnant, she was taken to a clinic and given two pills to terminate the pregnancy, but no one from the facility ever asked how she became pregnant. Several men interviewed for the story also described being raped repeatedly during their time at the facility. The Globe quoted one former victim recalling that the sexual abuse in the facility was so prevalent, “you just hoped it wasn’t your turn that night.”