#educationnotincarceration

http://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/405390-for-youthful-offenders-incarceration-doesnt-always-equal

Subject: Young people are often sent to prisons for minor offenses and never manage to reintegrate themselves back into their communities, causing infinitely more harm than good.

Authors: Nila Bala and Marc Schindler. Bala is a woman of color who works as the associate director of criminal justice policy at the R Street Institute. Schindler is a white man who works as the executive director at the Justice Policy Institute.

Context: This article was published on 9/07/18 in Washington D.C. The problem of youth incarceration is slightly alleviated at this time compared to the past, but still has many issues. 

Audience: The article was created for the general American public, no matter their political views.

Perspective: The article is subjective; the author believes that in order to reduce youth violence, money put into youth prisons should go into community-based services so that youths who have committed crimes can be held accountable in their own communities. I agree partially; I believe that it would be better for youths who have committed crimes to spend time serving their community rather than to be imprisoned, but I don’t think that would decrease youth violence.

Significance: The authors provide some evidence for their opinions, but don’t give the sources of their evidence. Evidence includes, “In fact, only about five percent of young people in the juvenile justice system are even accused of committing a violent crime” and “For example, recent polling has shown that by a margin of three to one, crime victims prefer community-based rehabilitation and mental health and substance abuse treatment over incarceration because they understand it reduces recidivism rates, keeping us all safer.”

https://www.npr.org/2017/09/27/551864016/fewer-youths-incarcerated-but-gap-between-blacks-and-whites-worsens

Subject: Though the difference between the crime rate of white youths and that of black youths is minimal, black youths have a much higher chance of confinement. This is probably because of the heightened police presence in minority neighborhoods.

Author: Jose Olivares. Olivares is a Latino man who works as a multimedia journalist and associate producer with WNYC’s “The Takeaway” (a morning radio news program)

Context: The article was published on 9/27/18. In this time, youth incarceration is in decline, but is still a significant issue in communities of color.

Audience: This article was created for the general American public, no matter their political views.

Perspective: The article is subjective; the author believes that youths of color are much more susceptible to incarceration than white youths. I agree, after being presented with the following evidence.

Significance: The author gives their sources for all evidence: the Sentencing Project states that in 2001, black children were four times more likely to be incarcerated than white children, but in 2015, black children were five times more likely than white children to be incarcerated. Additionally, a 2015 study made by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention discovered that black youths are not committing more crimes in proportion to white youths.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/01/the-cost-of-keeping-juveniles-in-adult-prisons/423201/

Subject: Though technically it’s illegal, many states keep youths imprisoned alongside adults, where they are more likely to face violence and sexual abuse.

Author: Jessica Lahey. Lahey is a white woman who works as a teacher and writer. Additionally, she writes a bi-weekly advice column on parenting for the New York Times.

Context: The article was published on 1/08/16. Since youth incarceration has been declining since the early 2000s, at this time it was an even more pressing issue.

Audience: This article was created for the general American public, no matter their political views.

Perspective: The article is subjective; the author believes that the legal system for children should be kept strictly separate from that of adults. I agree, because rehabilitation and treatment should be prioritized for juveniles who can still respond successfully to it, and exposing them to abuse from adults would only slow the rehabilitation process.

Significance: The author gives their sources for all evidence, for example: “More than any other group of incarcerated persons, youth incarcerated with adults are probably at the highest risk of sexual abuse” (National Prison Rape Elimination Commission) and “1.8 percent of 16 and 17 year-olds imprisoned with adults report being sexually abused by other inmates” (National Inmate Survey). 

All three of these sources agree that the youth incarceration system is flawed and harmful to those in it. However, the NPR article narrows down on race in the context of the issue, the Hill article focuses its criticism on the system imprisoning young people for minor offenses, and the Atlantic article discusses the effects of incarceration on youths already in the system.