Start with the ones who have the most potential: Making juvenile justice a priority

I recently heard in-flight instructions by a flight attendant who joked that passengers putting on oxygen masks should “start with the child who has the most potential.”

That tongue-in-cheek comment amused me, but it also reminded me of the brokenness of the juvenile court. The judicial system does not prioritize its resources to those who need the most and will benefit most greatly, either.

As someone who has spent years watching juveniles endure neglect from adults who lack the foresight to understand the consequences of their seemingly harmless actions, little things mean a lot. Bonner County’s loss of certification of its juvenile detention facility puts Idaho’s stamp on what is par for the course nationwide.

The state gives juveniles what is left at the bottom of the resource barrel, starkly repudiating every rehabilitative concept of the original juvenile courts. Then, to add insult to injury, after putting incarceration ahead of treatment, authorities cannot even make its dilapidated facilities meet the minimum requirements to house the youth.

While I was a law student at the University of Idaho, I worked with juvenile delinquents for three years. The Youth Services office was a tiny suite within the county courthouse that had cramped hallways with tattered carpet. The probation counselors’ offices were too small to accommodate more than one guest chair.

In my hometown, the two smallest courtrooms – out of more than 20 – are in the juvenile courthouse. I observed 11 hearings in the same juvenile case for more than a year in one of those cramped courtrooms.

The microphone system did not work properly. No one could hear the speakerphone without being within three feet of it. One of the juvenile court judges did not even sit at an elevated bench. It looked more like an elementary school classroom than a courtroom.

Is it any wonder that the juvenile court waiting area – far larger than either of the two courtrooms – was always packed to the gills with up to 40 teens, lined up as if they were waiting for Jonas Brothers tickets? Even making sure that the facility is adequately furnished and maintained to look and function like a courtroom goes a long way toward modeling to adolescents that they should respect a society that takes them seriously.

These days, many juvenile courthouses are run-down and most dockets are hopelessly clogged. Bonner County is one example among many of juveniles getting the leftovers after adults have fed to their hearts’ content at the public trough. Rehabilitating kids requires the resources of the juvenile court, completely unavailable in the higher-priority adult courts that get first dibs on public funds.

Louisiana’s juvenile recidivism rate, for example, was five times lower upon implementing alternatives to confinement. Nationally, two-thirds of inmates incarcerated in adult systems are rearrested after their release, and half are imprisoned again.

The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, a public-private partnership, advocates detention only as a last resort. In jurisdictions adopting its protocol, detention center populations declined 52% and juvenile arrests dropped 45%.

The juvenile system’s financial advantages should impress even those requiring more proof than the vastly reduced recidivism rates. Every dollar spent on rehabilitative alternatives reduces taxpayers’ costs by $8, compared with only $2 saved per dollar spent on incarceration.

Ensuring the quality of juvenile facilities, and juvenile offenders’ access to resources and court time within them, achieves more and costs less.

Perhaps the Bonner County facility’s plight can raise awareness that will buck the trend of giving the least to those who have the most potential.