[[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]]
Dear John,
Incarcerating youth undermines public safety, concludes The Sentencing Project in a new report, " Why Youth Incarceration Fails: An Updated Review of the Evidence. [[link removed]] " The report finds that confinement damages young people’s physical and mental health, impedes their educational and career success, and often exposes them to abuse.
Incarcerated youth are more likely to reoffend than similarly situated peers who are given other consequences for their behaviors. Ever-increasing evidence shows that vast racial and ethnic disparities in youth confinement reflect biased decision making – disproportionately exposing youth of color to the harmful effects of incarceration.
The report also shows that incarceration slows young people’s emotional maturation, a key to desisting from delinquency, and that it exacerbates childhood traumas that tend to drive youth toward delinquent behaviors in the first place.
Specifically, the report shows:
*
Incarceration
does
not
reduce
delinquent
behavior.
*
Incarceration
causes
substantial
long-term
harm
to
young
people’s
success
in
education
and
employment.
*
Incarceration
does
lasting
damage
to
young
people’s
physical
and
mental
health.
*
The
facilities
in
which
youth
are
incarcerated
are
rife
with
maltreatment
and
abuse.
*
The
abuses
and
harms
of
incarceration
are
inflicted
disproportionately
on
Black
youth
and
other
youth
of
color.
The full report is available here [[link removed]] .
Click to share this report on social media [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] Richard Mendel
Senior Research Fellow
Youth Justice
Email: [email protected] [[email protected]]
Get text alerts [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] The Sentencing Project
1705 DeSales St. NW
8th Fl
Washington, DC 20036
United States
www.sentencingproject.org [[link removed]] If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe: [link removed] .