Abstract
This paper evaluates several sources to try and determine whether the needs of youth in juvenile detention facilities are being met. While most youths consider counselling to be effective, more than half of them do not have the pleasure of working with professional mental health personnel. The education system used in most of these facilities tends to be ineffective because the needs of detained youth are different from the needs of their counterparts in the general population. Further, there are various disruptions, including court proceedings and security procedures that take up plenty of time that would be used for learning. To meet the needs of detained youth, juvenile detention centers should consider improving the coverage of mental health, for instance. These centers should also try using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to deal with substance abuse as well as the psychological problems facing detained youth.
Keywords: detained youth, counselling, case management, effective
On any given day in 2011, there were at least 16,000 youths under the age of twenty-one detained in correctional facilities in the United States. The majority of these juveniles were housed in short-term detention facilities, and some of them were locked up in long-term secure centers and group homes. Such an overrepresentation of youths in these facilities poses serious challenges regarding providing health care, both physical and mental; a suitable education system; and rehabilitation for substance abuse. The resources available in most of the juvenile detention facilities in the United States are inadequate to meet the needs of the convicted youth population. This paper reviews the current state and challenges that face juvenile detention facilities in meeting the needs of the convicted youth population.
Mental Health
In the past two decades, the mental health field and the juvenile justice system have increasingly appreciated the scope of the mental health issues relating to the youth in juvenile detention facilities. The outcome is wide acceptance of standardized screening equipment, the application of evidence-based approaches by service providers, and the collaboration of various juvenile justice and mental health organization to create proper strategies (Skowyra and Cocozza, 2007). Peterson-Badali et al., (2015) state that youths in juvenile detention facilities demonstrate a considerable range of problems in mental and psychological areas. Although the authors’ questions concerning mental and psychological symptoms are barely diagnostic of particular mental health disorders, they point out the general scope of self-reported problems in several domains. For instance, anger issues are prevalent among this category of youth, with more than 60% if them reporting they are frequently angry, lose their temper and get upset quite easily (Coker et al., 2014). Additionally, suicide remains to be one the leading causes of death among adolescents and young adults, with prior suicide attempts being the most significant risk factor. The prevalence of suicide attempts among youth in detention facilities is 22%, which is more than double the rate for the general youth population – 9.6%. Thus, there is a need for an effective solution to the mental issues facing the youth in juvenile detention facilities.
Mental health services in the form of counselling, ongoing therapy and evaluation are available, almost universally, in juvenile detention facilities in the United States, with 97% of these youth detained in facilities that offer one or more of such services. While most detained youth consider counselling and therapy to be effective, many of them do not receive counselling from professional mental health providers (Skowyra and Cocozza, 2007). Even though 77% of these youth are in facilities where qualified mental health providers offer ongoing therapy, 85% of them are in facilities some or all counsellors are not qualified mental health providers. Overall, the current state of mental health services in the United States’ juvenile detention facilities is below the required standards (White et al., 2016). Any attempts to correct this situation would mark a major improvement in the current juvenile justice system.
Health Care
According to a survey by Braverman and Murray (2011), about two-thirds of detained juvenile offenders have at least one health care need at any given moment. More than one-third of this issues are related to dental, hearing or vision care. Those who suffer illness are 28% while injuries affect 25% of them. The authors also analysed the state of health care services in these facilities.
There is no universal standard of care for juvenile detention facilities despite current discussions concerning the health needs of convicted youth offenders. Braverman and Murray (2011) found that a significant number of these needs is unmet in these facilities. In the survey, 65% of the youths interviewed reported that they were not given the care they needed for their health care needs. There are numerous cases where the hearing, vision and dental health care needs of these youth go unattended. However, juvenile detention facilities are more attentive to illness and injury cases, with only twenty-six percent of juvenile detainees reporting unmet health care needs in these areas.
Substance Abuse Rehabilitation
According to a survey by Walters (2015), substance abuse has a close link with delinquent behaviour among youths. The study revealed that youth offenders tend to indulge in drug abuse at higher rates than their peers in the general population. While only half of young people from the general population conceded to have used alcohol or other illicit drugs, nearly three-quarters of their counterparts in juvenile detention facilities conceded to have tried these drugs. Seventy-percent of the youth in custody reported problems associated with substance abuse, including criminal behaviour, abandoning their duties, and having the blackout experience. Despite these statistics, 19% of juvenile detention facilities lack screening equipment to determine the youths who have substance abuse problems. Furthermore, one-third of the youths detained in the facilities that have screening equipment do not get screened during entry. Most of the testing in these facilities is done on a random basis or in cases re-entry.
In some facilities, drug abuse counselling if provided to youth who report their behaviour but, most of the time, they only receive counselling sessions when their substance abuse problems have reached critical levels. The standard of drug abuse counseling and treatment varies from facility to facility. A thorough, reliable test is only the initial step. Effective intervention calls for the case manager to use the drug test results as a guide to developing a proper treatment plan. TH plan would only work if the case manager compels the youth maintains a regular treatment process and ensures that he or she received the appropriate services. Only sixty-four percent of juvenile offenders are housed in facilities that develop individualized drug abuse treatment approaches, and only forty-seven percent of them are in facilities that have a case manager for the oversight of plan compliance (Menard et al., 2016). Therefore, youth who report receiving individualized drug abuse treatment and counselling are more likely to consider this form of intervention to be “very helpful” compared to those who do not receive treatment and counseling.
Education
The relationship between education and the criminal behaviour is well defined. Meaning, youths who show less interest in education tend to be at a higher risk of engaging in criminal activities than those who demonstrate a significant level of commitment to education. According to a study by Leone and Weinberg (2010), youth who are disinterested in education have a heightened risk of crime, violence and behavior issues. The study revealed the level of educational deficits in the national population of youth in juvenile detention facilities. Detained youths have low enrolment rates of 79% at the time they enter custody, as compared to their peers in the general population who are at 95%. The majority of the convicted youth are currently functioning below the grade level that is common for their age, whereas only one-fourth of their peers on the general population display such characteristics (Day et al., 2012). Such statistics demonstrate the need for a review in the state of education in juvenile detention facilities.
Every youth in the United States, including those who have been incarcerated, have a right to a publicly funded education. Thus, it is the duty of juvenile detention facilities, school districts, and states to ensure that confined students receive a proper education (Duwe and Clark, 2014). The issue, in this case, is not whether or not the education is available; rather, it is the effectiveness of the available education. Therefore, grants from the United States Department of Justice and Department of Education may be vital tools to assist in meeting the needs of the student population in juvenile detention facilities. These facilities have shown that they face significant challenges in providing convicted youth the chance of meeting the same challenging state academic standards and student scholarly achievement standards that their peers in the general population are expected to reach. Day et al. (2012) report that a majority of detained youth complain of interruptions such as court appearances, security procedures and facility-based therapy and counselling. Such disruptions, combined with insufficient administrative and fiscal support, tend to hinder students from getting the education they need.
Some of the institutional problems facing juvenile detention facilities include delays in the transfer of student records, correctional authority oversight, mission and philosophical variations between or within agencies, and difficulty in adding and retaining experienced instructors. Furthermore, some of these institutions do not understand the legal requirements to offer educational services to convicted youth. Additionally, there is a shortage of resources for meeting the current demand to incorporate IT in an educational context, including computer-based assessment.
Conclusions and Recommendations
In order to have a proper understanding of the needs of youth in juvenile detention facilities, it is important to analyse different aspects of life in these facilities. Detained youth need an effective education that is probably different to the one used for their peers in the general population. The places of detention for youths have also been found to be lacking in proper equipment and personnel to guarantee the mental and physical health. While the effects of these errors in the juvenile justice system have not yet reached serious levels, improvements have to be made before it is too late. The following are recommendations for policies and programs to meet the needs of youth in juvenile detention facilities.
Improve Coverage of Mental Health Services
Use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has been found to be very effective on youth with substance abuse problems. However, some aspects of this treatment may also be vital in addressing psychological issues among adolescents and young adults. The advantage of using CBT is that it is mostly time-saving, structured and focuses on treatment gains over a short period. This component of this therapy makes it suitable in a context where the youth has a short stay in the detention facility, or where treatment has to be optimally effective. Further, CBT is educational, with the aim of rehearsing new skills. It is also collaborative, with the youth having to contribute to their own recovery (Childs et al., 2016). This aspect makes it more appealing particularly to individuals who consider themselves powerless and unable to have a control of what happens in their lives.
The research concerning the use of CBT to treat psychological problems is somewhat inexplicit; however, the impact of this treatment approach on substance abuse problems suggests the possibility of positive results in the former.
References
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