COVID-19 analysis: Juveniles were restrained less; a fraction of parents didn’t know how to contact incarcerated children as in-person visits slowed during pandemic

Fewer juveniles were placed in restraints and more reported that they’ve had positives dealings with staffers at juvenile agencies, according to April 2021 data voluntarily submitted by 148 pre-trial and other short-term detention facilities, longer-term correctional facilities, assessment and in-community residential programs in 32 states. Released in August by the Performance-based Standards Learning Institute, partnering with Vera Institute, the snapshots of data gauge COVID-19’s impact on  juveniles in those states and on their families who, with in-person visits banned during he pandemic, had to find other ways to connect.

COVID19 Analysis-Record high blacks and low of white in juvenile facilities

Covid-19 Analysis: Record High of Blacks, Low of Whites in Juvenile Facilities

The tally of Black youth detained in juvenile facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic reached a record high last January, while the same count for white youth was the second lowest since the Annie E. Casey Foundation started tracking that data. The foundation’s most recent monthly analysis showed that, as of Feb. 1, whites had spent less time in detention than Blacks, who also were incarcerated for longer periods than they’d been detained before the pandemic started. Aimed at measuring the pandemic’s impact on 144 juvenile justice systems across 33 states, the Casey Foundation survey started in March 2020. 

By its most recent count, during January 2021, there was a:

6% decline in the population of non-Latinx white youth in juvenile detention. 2% uptick in the population of Latinx youth in juvenile detention.

collaborate: Sad teenager girl in medical mask behind bars.

Pandemic Is Chance For Leaders to Collaborate on Transforming Youth Justice

From Louisiana to New York, juvenile detention centers are reporting more staff and children testing positive for COVID-19. Incarcerated youth are extremely vulnerable to infection. We know these numbers will only continue to get worse unless youth justice systems act immediately. Releasing youth from locked facilities where social distancing is impossible or avoiding sending them there in the first place is critical. This is why even those of us who have experience running such facilities are calling for action.

Retired San Francisco chief juvenile probation officer William Siffermann (headshot)

Reliance on Detention for Juvenile Justice a Lazy, Uninformed Habit That Must Be Broken

In a recent trip to my cardiologist’s office, the hazards of one’s (my) choice of double cheeseburgers as a regular dietary mainstay was called into question as a primary health risk affecting several organs and overall life expectancy. An immediate dietary adjustment was ordered. What? Yes. A comfortable and tasty habit needed to be broken and substituted with a healthier alternative for the good of my entire system.