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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: Youth Prisons Aren't Fit for Kids

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Monday, October 24, 2016   

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Children should not be kept behind bars, according a new report that examines the ineffectiveness of youth prisons in Maryland and other states.

The research from The Annie E. Casey Foundation pulls together evidence of the failings of youth correctional facilities and recommends they all be closed.

Foundation president and CEO Patrick McCarthy says these prisons have high recidivism rates and do not improve long term outcomes for youths.

"These institutions fail at protecting the community, they fail at turning young lives around, they are unconscionably expensive, they’re prone to abuse, they defy reform, and the bottom line is we have alternatives," he states.

In Maryland, there are 13 correctional facilities for minors.

McCarthy says those youths are incarcerated for low-risk offenses and often don't get the guidance and support they need to get back on track.

Juvenile detention facilities often are overcrowded and understaffed.

An example that made national headlines is the Cheltenham Center in Maryland, which at one point crowded 100 boys into cottages meant for a maximum capacity of 24.

McCarthy notes there is an enormous financial toll for youth prisons. While costs vary state-to-state, states pay on average about $90,000 a year for every youth in a juvenile facility.

"The money that we are wasting now on these incredibly expensive as well as ineffective institutions, we've got to reinvest that money in things that work,” he stresses. “We don't have any magic solutions for juvenile crime, but we have many programs that have evidence of success that we need to invest our dollars in."

The number of young people incarcerated in Maryland continues to drop.

In 2006, The Annie E. Casey Foundation says there were more than 1,100 locked up. Now there are around 700.





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