CHILDREN DON’T BELONG IN JAIL! ●In Florida, a 17-year-old mildly retarded boy who was pleaded guilty to sexual battery was strangled by his 20-year-old cell mate ●In Boise, Idaho, a 17-year-old boy was tortured and finally murdered by other prisoners in the cell ●Another teenager had been beaten unconscious by the same inmates several years earlier ●Several teens have committed suicide when put in jail

Research Demonstrates That Prosecuting Children in Adult Court Doesn’t Work Research Demonstrates That Prosecuting Children in Adult Court Doesn’t Work  Recent research demonstrates that transferring children from juvenile court to adult court does not decrease recidivism, and in fact actually increases crime.  A study of juvenile cases tried in adult courts in 18 of the largest urban jurisdictions in the country showed that many youth sent to the adult system were charged with non-violent offenses, many were released soon after their arrests, and many were not convicted at all or were transferred back to the juvenile justice system. Yet, two thirds of the youth who were detained before trial were held in adult jails, and one-third of those were held in the general population with adult inmates.

Protecting Youth from Adult Inmates Separation and Jail Removal-The federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) of 1974 requires participating states to assure that youths under juvenile court jurisdiction are separated by sight and sound from adults at all stages of judicial processing and that youths who have not committed criminal offenses (such as dependent or neglected children, runaways, or status offenders) are not placed in secure confinement. As amended in 1980, the JJDP Act requires that states remove youths from adult jails-in response to studies which showed that despite the separation requirements of the original Act, almost half a million children were still housed in adult jails and lockups each year, typically isolated for long periods, without access to institutional programs and services. Thus, federal regulations permit children who are charged with delinquent offenses to be held in lockups for only a limited number of hours before and after court hearings; The Act has been tremendously successful. Prior to the Act, states reported that as many as 500,000 youths were held each year in adult jails and lockups. That figure has been reduced to approximately 10,000 in 1995, with the two states that are no longer participating in the program accounting for over 7,000. Also, there has a substantial decline in the use of detention in status offense cases. In 1975, an estimated 143,000 status offense cases involved detention -in 1996, the figure was 39,000.

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