Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/job-training/)
Proponents say hiring 18 year-olds is a win-win: Recent graduates fill a critical staffing need and jump-start their career right out of high school. Critics say teenagers lack the emotional maturity needed to work with inmates. Who is correct?
In 2023, Equal Measure conducted a series of surveys with Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential partners to analyze their efforts in tackling the root causes of disconnection from education and careers with systems-involved youth. This report shares findings from that evaluation.
Researchers found almost all of 112 Philadelphians who have been released from lifetime prison sentences said they participated in some form of prison programming, but 53 percent reported having been restricted from vocational programs such as barbering (Pennsylvania prioritizes people who have less than five years left on their sentences for vocational training). “A lot of these guys who did end up taking advantage of the college programming were able to enroll through their perseverance as opposed to these programs being allocated for them,” said study co-author Tarika Daftary-Kapur, professor of justice studies at Montclair State University in New Jersey, which conducted the survey.
A stolen bike. A schoolyard tussle complete with shiners. A neighbor’s garage door graffitied. These seemingly minor incidents can start a young person down the road to delinquency. And once down that road, some young people will find themselves in the juvenile justice system.
I’ve argued that notions demeaning the “teenage brain,” “adolescent risk,” and “crime-prone youth” are just simplistic adult prejudices with no scientific basis that hamper understanding of the root conditions and individual situations that drive challenges affecting youth. However, youths do deserve singular considerations in the justice system.