Members of Young Adults Striving for Success (YASS) presented “The State of Juvenile Justice Reform in Louisiana: 10 Years After Act 1225” last week to members of the Juvenile Justice Reform Act Implementation Committee.
The presentation highlighted stories from the 2003 closure of the Tallulah-Madison Juvenile Detention Center, and compared them to conditions in 2012 inside of the secure care facilities operated by the Office of Juvenile Justice.
The comparison was startlingly similar. Youth are still being abused by guards, parents are being denied access to their children, and staff turnover rates are still unacceptable. The presentation also highlighted improvements in the number of incarcerated youth (422 in 2012, compared to over 2000 in 2002).
When the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana opened in 1997, Louisiana’s juvenile justice system was notorious for its violence. Children, predominantly low-income and African-American, were warehoused in brutal, adult-like institutions, often suffering from physical brutality and emotional abuse. Although the large majority of youth who entered the juvenile justice system were charged with non-violent offenses, entering the juvenile justice system became a pathway to adult prison, rather than an opportunity for rehabilitation.
In 1998 with the Department of Justice on conditions of confinement, which resulted in a settlement agreement that produced significant reforms in Louisiana youth facilities. JJPL worked with its partner organizations to pass Act 1225 in 2003. The sweeping juvenile justice reform legislation mandated the closure of the notoriously brutal Tallulah Center for Youth and committed the state to a more therapeutic model of juvenile justice.
There were more than 2,000 incarcerated youth in Louisiana in 1998; today there are less than 600. The percentage of youth in prison for non-violent offenses has significantly declined, and the number of community based alternatives to incarceration has increased.
However, the state still has not reached its goals in reform. Secure care facilities remain overcrowded and plagued by problems, while budget cuts in recent years have impeded some of the progress that has been made in developing alternatives.
JJPL continues working to monitor Louisiana’s secure care facilities, seek alternatives to incarceration and improve juvenile detention center standards statewide.