LjrvBVSU6xĭespite these efforts, however, the current approach to delinquent children remains fundamentally misguided. of the NOPD and judges from the Criminal and Juvenile courts. I convened a meeting yesterday with critical stakeholders in our justice system-from the DA to the Public Defenders, the Youth Study Center, the Supt. Moreover, the city has sought to expand mental health care access and address understaffing concerns. The Landrieu administration initiated a $14.8 million expansion of the facility, adding 28 more beds to accommodate juvenile offenders confined at the adult jail. To its credit, the city has taken some steps toward addressing some of the more egregious problems faced by the JJIC. Children receive little mental health care, and they face overly punitive disciplinary measures, such as reduced visitation privileges, which only serve to further isolate them.Īccording to a 2017 Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Facility Assessment of the then-Youth Study Center, the facility was judged to be nonconforming with nearly half of the JDAI’s standards for youth detention. In recent years, the JJIC, formerly the Youth Study Center, has been understaffed, overcrowded and unsafe for detained youth and staff alike. Nonetheless, the juvenile justice system remains rife with serious issues. NOLA Community Advisory Group - Safety & Justice June 26, 2019 In real terms juvenile arrests (brought to court) have been the same over the last few years. Juvenile arrests are way down over last year, but there was a surge at this time last year. Though the district attorney’s office has railed about a supposed rise in juvenile arrests, the juvenile arrest rate has gone down for both violent and non-violent crimes in 2019. To be clear, the city does not face any surge of violent youth, despite frenzied rhetoric to the contrary.
The recent disturbance at the JJIC is only the latest, albeit most dramatic, example of New Orleans’ troubled juvenile justice experience. Though no one was harmed, the incident underscores the alarming deficiencies of the city’s juvenile justice approach. During the episode, three incarcerated youths, barricading themselves in their cell, reportedly fashioned homemade weapons. 15, a disturbance broke out at the Orleans Parish Juvenile Justice Intervention Center, resulting in the New Orleans Police Department SWAT team being called to the scene. Nketiah Berko is a research assistant with the Oxford-Tulane Developmental Justice Network studying juvenile justice in New Orleans and Barbados and was formerly an investigative intern at the Orleans Public Defenders office.
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