skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Report: Youth Prisons Too Costly, Ineffective

play audio
Play

Wednesday, August 5, 2020   

BALTIMORE -- Dozens of prosecutors and corrections officials are calling for youth prisons across the country to close permanently. Their message coincides with a new report on the operating costs of these facilities, and they point to efforts in Maryland as progress.

With fewer young people entering the juvenile-justice system, the coalition said, it's fair to question whether taxpayers should continue funding youth prisons. Vincent Schiraldi, co-chair of the group Youth Correctional Leaders for Justice, said policymakers need to be mindful of the teens who still are locked up.

"A lot of places are getting down to the point where they have very few kids," he said, "and if they could close their youth prisons and capture the money and put it into community programs, they could have much better outcomes."

According to the report from the Justice Policy Institute, 40 states spend an average of more than $200,000 a year on each young person incarcerated, costs that have risen more than 40% in the last few years. Maryland spends more than $400,000 per youth annually. The coalition praised the state for plans to close two juvenile-detention centers, but said youth prisons should be included.

Marc Schindler, executive director of the institute, said mounting research shows correctional centers for post-sentencing confinement are harmful to the futures of young people who end up there. He said teens who commit a serious offense but have no other history of delinquent behavior aren't likely to do it again -- and even for those who commit serious offenses, he said, a long sentence isn't always the best approach.

"We have to look beyond the offense," he said, "and look whether they are truly a risk to public safety."

The coalition said state and local governments need to keep developing community support efforts. According to the Justice Department, the number of young people in confinement in the United States has fallen by 60% since 2000. Supporters of closing youth prisons have said that trend isn't expected to slow down.

The "Sticker Shock 2020" youth prison cost report is online at justicepolicy.org, and incarceration data is at prisonpolicy.org.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Iowa families can apply for up to $7,600 a year for private school costs. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

An ethics committee in the Republican-led Iowa House has dismissed a complaint filed by a group of community activists against a state lawmaker for hi…


play sound

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of California high school seniors have to figure out if they can afford to go to college in the fall - and two new …

Health and Wellness

play sound

A health care workforce shortage in New Hampshire is leaving Alzheimer's patients and their families with few options for treatment. Patients facing …


South Dakota ranks 49th in the country for its contribution to indigent legal defense costs, according to a 2023 report from the Indigent Legal Services Task Force. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

South Dakota is creating an Office of Indigent Legal Services after House Bill 1057 passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support this month…

Environment

play sound

A Knoxville-based environmental group is voicing concerns over what it sees as an increasing financial strain imposed on taxpayers by nuclear weapons …

Environment

play sound

A bipartisan law set to take effect this summer prohibits foreign adversaries from buying Hoosier farmland. The signature of Gov. Eric Holcomb was …

Social Issues

play sound

Today, people across Arizona are voting in the Presidential Preference Election, a chance for registered Democrats and Republicans to choose their …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021