A new study recommends state agencies change their methods to address child labor trafficking.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Social Work surveyed child welfare and juvenile justice professionals, and found that 20% reported they have worked with people under 18 who were coerced or controlled by another person or entity for their labor -- and over 40% expect to do so in the future.

Trafficked children are typically forced to do things like domestic service, childcare, food industry and retail work - as well as forced criminal activity such as stealing or selling drugs.

Lead study author Neil Mallon -- a senior research specialist with the Prevention of Adolescent Risks Initiative at the University of Maryland School of Social Work -- said finding hard data to estimate the scale of the problem is difficult.

"Unlike sex trafficking, which is defined as a form of child sexual abuse, labor trafficking is not defined in that sort of way within our child abuse laws," said Mallon. "So, it makes the enforcement of which agency is responsible for investigating, identifying, and providing services to those children a little unclear."

Researchers recommend the state update child abuse laws to define labor trafficking as 'maltreatment,' and forced criminal behavior as 'labor trafficking.'

Study authors also call on Maryland's human and juvenile service agencies to improve screening, reporting, and investigation of at-risk or victimized youth.

Amelia Rubenstein, director of the University's PARI effort and an adjunct professor, said accurately identifying someone in an exploitative labor circumstance is critical - but complicated.

"There's a lot of different information you need to know," said Rubenstein, "about how they're paid, if they're paid, if they're allowed to work, what their working conditions are - in order to determine if it's exploitative, or if it's labor trafficking. "

The report shows how child labor trafficking can include 'debt bondage,' where a person has pledged their labor as payment or collateral on a debt - often as compensation for having been smuggled into the U.S.

These arrangements can be extended indefinitely as smugglers may continue to arbitrarily add interest and fees so the debt can never be repaid.

Children caught in labor trafficking may be subjected to forced criminal activity which can involve being compelled to cultivate, sell or transport drugs, being forced to steal, and transport weapons or stolen goods.

Mallon said when children in these situations enter the juvenile justice system, professionals need to recognize the signs.

"Do we need to kind of shift our lens, the way that we look at juvenile delinquency, to understand that maybe not all of these children are complicit in the labor of crime?" Mallon asked. "And that in some cases, these are kids that are being used and exploited into doing this type of work by the very same elements of force, fraud and coercion that are seen in sex trafficking cases."

The report also calls on the state to provide young people access to meaningful employment opportunities including well-paid internships to build vocational skills.



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Advocates for juvenile justice reform in Washington are celebrating the passage of House Bill 1815. The law redefines "prison riot" and lets judges expunge past rioting charges for young people.

Previously, incarcerated youths could get felony convictions and up to 10 years added to their sentence for any fight involving two or more people.

Anthony Powers, founder of the American Equity and Justice Group, helped draft the law after hearing from incarcerated youths at Green Hill School in Chehalis.

"One guy had nine years from three fistfights where nobody got hurt," Powers explained. "And then it had this whole ripple effect of things, because now they got more time, now they're more miserable. Now you've got other things that start to escalate."

Green Hill School is a state-operated juvenile facility that has seen many young men convicted of riot charges in the last few years. Powers adds the law was disproportionately impacting young men of color, and that the new law will help with overcrowding.

Some Republicans in the Washington Senate criticized the change, saying it could mean letting people off the hook for serious misconduct. Powers disagrees, saying the old law did not make sense.

"If we're trying to get people on the inside to mirror behaviors on the outside so they become healthy and productive citizens, then how are we going to have one standard for them that's completely to the extreme from what somebody would be charged with out in society," he continued.

Rep, Strom Peterson, D-Edmonds, who sponsored the bill, explained along with the extended sentence, a Prison Riot charge can come with tens of thousands of dollars in fines, which becomes another hurdle for people when they re-enter society.

"You're seeing these young men getting out of incarceration at 18 or 20 years old. And after they've served an extra couple of years, maybe for this felony, and then they're leaving with a $10,000 fine, with really no hope of paying that off," he said.

Peterson added that within a week of the bill's passage, 11 young people were released from custody after their riot charges were dropped.


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Two bills aimed at reforming the juvenile justice system in Illinois are close to becoming law.

Senate Bill 1784 proposes raising the age of detention from 10 to 13 and Senate Bill 2156 seeks to ensure front-line responders can access the appropriate services for children in crisis to avoid detention, if possible.

Elizabeth Clarke, founder and executive director of the Juvenile Justice Initiative, said research shows jailing children for any amount of time is harmful and can cause long-term consequences, affecting their quality of life, especially for children of color.

"The Juvenile Justice Commission has filed numerous reports over the years looking at the children who are actually detained," Clarke pointed out. "And in every report, it is disproportionately used for children who are Black and brown."

She added for children ages 10-12, the racial disparities are even more dramatic. Both bills passed the state Senate. Senate Bill 1784 passed a House committee Tuesday.

Efforts to end detention of young children across the state have been ongoing. Illinois currently has 14 juvenile detention centers covering 102 counties, with only three regularly meeting basic standards. Clarke pointed out besides the fact jailing children does not guarantee an increase in public safety, it is also costly.

"These two bills together offer a unique opportunity to help our children and help our taxpayers as well," Clarke asserted. "By front-loading resources so that you use the least expensive and most effective interventions to keep children out of the justice system."

Clarke emphasized a key aspect of one bill is to create a task force to help identify the resources needed for front-line responders. Probation departments would report monthly on service gaps to facilitate resource allocation.

"Whether it's a crisis that leads to some sort of prosecution or a behavioral health crisis, whatever it is, people want to do the right thing," Clarke observed. "But law enforcement, who are often the first responders, don't always know exactly where to turn, or how to do the right thing."

A new report examined differences in state juvenile justice system financing, looking at how local control can improve outcomes.

The report, "Transforming Juvenile Justice Through Strategic Financing," compared seven states and highlighted Ohio's RECLAIM initiative as influential. RECLAIM began in 1993 and encouraged courts to implement community-based alternatives to youth incarceration, with the aim of decreasing the likelihood of repeated arrest.

Gabriella Celeste, policy director for the Schubert Center for Child Studies at Case Western Reserve University, said RECLAIM and its recent updates have transformed the state's juvenile justice system.

"In the last 10 years or so, it's really upped its game, the state of Ohio, in ensuring that the kinds of interventions are based on what works with kids," Celeste explained. "That's where we see the new kind of iterations of RECLAIM, the Targeted RECLAIM, and especially Competitive RECLAIM."

Ohio has seen declines in youth incarceration over the past two decades, with the average daily youth population in correctional facilities falling from nearly 1,700 in 2005 to around 500 in recent years. The number of young people on parole declined 84% over the same period.

The average cost to house a juvenile in prison nationally is estimated to be $500 per day, or more than $200,000 a year, with some states above $500,000. The report found community-based programs are far cheaper with some costing as little as $75 a day.

Celeste pointed out alternative placements have been effective at reducing recidivism and improving other measures of youth well-being.

"With kids we want to be thinking about other wellness-related outcomes," Celeste outlined. "Are they engaged in school? Are they discontinuing use of substances? Are they progressing with a treatment program? But we tend to just look at one thing when it comes to kids in the justice system, and that's recidivism, which is important, but safety includes a number of other factors."

Alternative placements often include community services, which can more readily meet individualized needs among kids in the justice system. Courts can mandate individual and family therapy along with addiction programs. Celeste said mentorship programs have also gained popularity.

"There's increasingly a recognition that people who themselves have had experience or lived experience, whether in the system or as family members connected with loved ones in the system," Celeste observed. "They are themselves, kind of credible messengers, and they can play a really effective mentoring role with kids and young people."

The report looked at funding dynamics and programs in 11 localities among the seven states.


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