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Nothing fails like government.
And it is EXPENSIVE - "Incarcerating a juvenile offender for one year in a state youth facility costs more than $86,000" Illinois' juvenile justice system is failing, state report says By Ryan Haggerty, Chicago Tribune reporter 12:01 a.m. CST, December 13, 2011 Illinois' juvenile justice system is failing to rehabilitate offenders and help them return to life in their communities, according to a state commission's study to be released Tuesday. More than half of the people released from state Department of Juvenile Justice facilities are later incarcerated again in the juvenile system, according to the study by the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission. The report also says the state's juvenile justice system "is, in many ways, the 'feeder system' to the adult criminal justice system and a cycle of crime, victimization and incarceration." The commission was ordered by law to develop recommendations to help youth offenders successfully transition back into their communities. The commission's members found a system that is in desperate need of an overhaul, said its chairman, Judge George W. Timberlake, retired chief judge of the 2nd Judicial Circuit. "We actually saw a system that doesn't work so well, if we gauge the worth of the system in increasing public safety, doing so at the least possible cost and improving the outcomes of kids who otherwise might be part of future criminal activity," Timberlake said in a phone interview Monday. Incarcerating a juvenile offender for one year in a state youth facility costs more than $86,000, according to the report. In contrast, community-based rehabilitation programs that the report says are more effective cost $3,000 to $8,000 per person a year. The juvenile justice system also fails offenders once they are released from custody, the report says. About 40 percent of incarcerated juvenile offenders are being held for parole violations such as skipping school or violating curfew, behavior that "likely poses no threat to public safety" and taxes the system's resources, according to the report. "What you may be seeing is teenage conduct," not criminal or dangerous behavior, Timberlake said. "I don't know of any parents that think that their teenage children are going to abide by every rule that they create." Rather than locking up children for relatively minor parole violations, the youth parole system should rely on re-entry strategies that are better tailored to juveniles' needs, the report says. rhaggerty@tribune.com |