When is youths' debt to society paid off? Examining the long-term consequences of juvenile incarceration for adult functioning

The Forgotten Youth: Responding to Mental Health Needs Among Confined Youth in the Time of COVID-19

As COVID-19 sweeps across the country, individuals within the carceral system face an increased risk of contracting the virus, and as a result, heightened risk for mental health symptoms. We discuss how COVID-19 appears to be exacerbating mental health inequities for children within the carceral system and the need to respond accordingly. Children within the carceral system represent a particularly vulnerable population, and the majority of detained or confined youth identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). As juvenile detention centers in multiple states report cases of COVID-19, children who are confined are experiencing higher rates of illness and fear of illness. It is crucial to consider how the mental health of children who are confined will be disproportionately affected compared with the general population. We provide recommendations to revise practices to improve and reduce mental health outcomes among confined children.

Fatherhood, Behavioral Health, and Criminal Legal System Contact over the Life Course

Life course theories suggest that fathers' lifetime criminal legal system contact could contribute to poor parent-child outcomes via deterioration in couple relationship quality and fathers' behavioral health. Using paired, longitudinal data from the Multi-site Family Study (N = 1,112 couples), the current study examines the influence of three dimensions of fathers' life course legal system contact on individual and parent-child outcomes. In fitted models, accumulated system contact in adulthood predicts fathers' later depressive symptoms and drug misuse, which in turn predict diminished father-child relationship quality (as reported by both co-parents). Fathers who were older at the time of their first arrest had poorer relationships with their children's mothers and, in turn, poorer behavioral health and parent-child outcomes. Conditions of confinement during fathers' most recent prison stay do not significantly predict later parent-child outcomes, net of the influence of age at first arrest and accumulated criminal legal system contact in adulthood.

Adult Outcomes of Justice Involved Indigenous Youth

Juvenile arrest serves as a critical turning point in the life-course that disrupts the successful transition to adulthood and carries numerous consequences including diminished socioeconomic status. Despite their disproportionately high rates of contact with the criminal justice system (CJS), Indigenous people's experiences remain largely invisible in extant research. Further, colonization has left them in an extremely marginalized position in terms of social, economic, and political power, which is compounded by CJS involvement. In the current study, we apply propensity score matching to investigate whether being arrested in adolescence impacts early adult socioeconomic outcomes (i.e., education, employment, and income). Data come from the Healing Pathways project, a longitudinal, community-based participatory study of North American Indigenous young people that includes eight waves of data in adolescence and three waves in early adulthood. We find that being arrested at least once in adolescence is associated with significantly less education and income, and lower rates of full-time employment in young adulthood (mean age = 26.2 years). Criminal justice system involvement widens existing socioeconomic disparities, and remedying these consequences requires changes in how CJS policies are enacted as well as larger structural changes to address significant inequities in income, education, and employment for Indigenous people.

Decolonizing drug policy

This paper reviews evidence of how drug control has been used to uphold colonial power structures in select countries. It demonstrates the racist and xenophobic impact of drug control policy and proposes a path to move beyond oppressive systems and structures. The 'colonization of drug control' refers to the use of drug control by states in Europe and America to advance and sustain the systematic exploitation of people, land and resources and the racialized hierarchies, which were established under colonial control and continue to dominate today. Globally, Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples are disproportionately targeted for drug law enforcement and face discrimination across the criminal system. These communities face higher arrest, prosecution and incarceration rates for drug offenses than other communities, such as majority populations, despite similar rates of drug use and selling among (and between) different races. Current drug policies have contributed to an increase in drug-related deaths, overdoses and sustained transnational criminal enterprises at the expense of the lives of people who use drugs, their families and greater society. This review provides further evidence of the need to reform the current system. It outlines a three-pillared approach to rebuilding drug policy in a way that supports health, dignity and human rights, consisting of: (1) the decriminalization of drugs and their use; (2) an end to the mass incarceration of people who use drugs; (3) the redirection of funding away from ineffective and punitive drug control and toward health and social programs.

Identifying and predicting criminal career profiles from adolescence to age 39

Few longitudinal studies are capable of identifying criminal career profiles using both self-report and official court data beyond the 30s. The current study aims to identify criminal career profiles across three developmental periods using self-report data, validate these profiles with official court records and determine early childhood predictors. Data came from the Seattle Social Development Project (n = 808). Latent Class Analysis was used to examine criminal careers from self-reported data during adolescence (aged 14-18), early adulthood (aged 21-27) and middle adulthood (aged 30-39). Official court records were used to validate the classes. Childhood risk and promotive factors measured at ages 11-12 were used to predict classes. Findings revealed four career classes: non-offending (35.6%), adolescence-limited (33.2%), adult desister (18.3%) and life-course/persistent (12.9%). Official court records are consistent with the description of the classes. Early life school and family environments as well as having antisocial beliefs and friends differentiate membership across the classes. The results of this study, with a gender-balanced and racially diverse sample, bolster the current criminal career knowledge by examining multiple developmental periods into the 30s using both self-report and official court data.

A longitudinal examination of African American adolescent females detained for status offense

INTRODUCTION

Behaviors like truancy, running away, curfew violation, and alcohol possession fall under the status offense category and can have serious consequences for adolescents. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency and Prevention Act prohibited detaining status offenders. We explored the degree to which African American adolescent girls were being detained for status offenses and the connections to their behavioral health risks and re-confinement.

METHODS

188 African American girls (aged 13-17), recruited from detention facilities, were surveyed at baseline and 3-month follow-ups. Logistic regression models estimated the likelihood of longitudinal re-confinement, controlling for sexual and behavioral health risk factors.

RESULTS

One third of the overall sample was detained for a status offense. Status offenders were exposed to higher peer risk profiles. At follow-up, nearly 39% of status offenders reported re-confinement. Compared to youth with other offenses, those who violated a court order (type of status offense) were 3 times more likely to be re-confined. Controlling for sexual and behavioral health risk factors, the odds of re-confinement was not statistically significant.

CONCLUSION

Overall findings suggest that courts and detention facilities must devote specialized resources to addressing the socio-behavioral needs of African American girls with status offenses so as not to use detention as an intervention.

Pediatric Community Mental Health

The emotional health and wellbeing of children and adolescents and their families is of utmost importance. Pediatricians are at the front line in identifying mental illness in children and adolescents and either linking them to resources in the community or providing treatment options themselves. Collaboration and integrative health care models is the cornerstone of effective strategies to provide access and quality mental health care to children and families in communities across the country.