On March 11, the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities held a hearing on “Meeting the Challenges Faced by Girls in the Juvenile Justice System.”
Chair Carolyn McCarthy (D- NY) said, “We have decided to focus on girls today because unfortunately the number of girls in the system is on the rise and…the juvenile justice system was developed around boys in terms of policies, practices, and staff training…Data shows that in 2001, girls made up 19 percent of detained youth, but 24 percent of those were detained for technical violations and 43 percent of those were detained for status offenses. For girls, many of whom are runaways, they are often running away from an abusive home life. Some judges want to protect the runaway girl from a chaotic household or from the streets, and if they feel they have no other options, they will put her in detention.” She continued, “Girls have particular health needs associated with pregnancy and childbirth, personal hygiene, and mental health issues, such as depression and trauma from previous sexual abuse, which are not being addressed. We need to explore how to better screen girls who enter the system for mental health issues and how to treat girls once they are confined.”
“Although recent studies have provided us with more information regarding the involvement of females in the juvenile justice system, there is still much we have yet to learn,” said Ranking Member Todd Platts (R-PA). “According to the Girls Study Group a group of scholars and practitioners convened by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency by 2004, girls accounted for 30 percent of all juvenile justice arrests. Despite the fact that this figure is higher than previous decades, the group found that girls have not necessarily become more violent, but that changes in the enforcement of domestic dispute laws and zero-tolerance school policies may attribute to an increasing percentage of female delinquency rates. As we deal with the changing environment of the juvenile justice system, we must ensure that these girls are treated in a way that is safe and constructive to their rehabilitation.”
Francine Sherman, clinical professor and director of the Juvenile Rights Advocacy Project at Boston College Law School, said, ”Over the last two decades, while girls remain a numerical minority in the juvenile justice system, their proportion has steadily increased; from 1999 to 2008 arrests of girls decreased less than their male counterparts in almost every offense category and for some crimes (such as assault) arrests of girls increased while those of boys decreased…Girls’ presence in the justice system is closely linked to developmental and social factors unique to girls in either kind or degree and there is increasing evidence that unintended consequences of juvenile justice system policies and practices are pulling girls into the juvenile justice system and keeping them there when it is clear that another system or community-based agency would better serve them.” She added, “For girls in the juvenile justice system you cannot overstate the impact of family chaos and trauma. While boys and girls in the justice system are likely to come from distressed families, data shows that female delinquents are more likely to come from families characterized by chaos, such as violence, incarceration of a parent, death of a parent or sibling, poor family communication, and residential instability. Moreover, there is strong evidence that girls are being criminalized for living in these chaotic households by being arrested for family-based assaults in situations that would have triggered family services intervention in a prior decade and by being detained for violating curfew and orders to obey ‘house rules’ in status offense cases.” Ms. Sherman continued, “Although empirical findings as to the incidence of victimization vary, research shows that up to 73 percent of girls in the justice system have experienced sexual or physical victimization. One study found that while males are more likely to have witnessed violence; females are more likely to have been the target of violence. Girls are more likely than boys to have experienced sexual assault, rape, or sexual harassment, and a history of abuse is probably a more powerful predictor of delinquent behavior for girls than for boys.”
Linda Teplin, professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, presented results of the Northwestern Juvenile Project, the first large-scale longitudinal study of mental health needs and outcomes of juvenile detainees. She said, “Our study shows that youth with psychiatric disorders pose a challenge for the juvenile justice system and, after their release, for the larger mental health system. At intake, nearly three-quarters of girls and two-thirds of boys have one or more psychiatric disorders, rates three to four times that of the general population younger than age 18. Girls have significantly higher odds than boys of having any disorder...The mental health needs of girls are substantially different than those of boys. For example, girls have significantly higher odds than boys of having affective disorders (such as major depression), any anxiety disorder, and some substance use disorders (using “hard drugs,” such as cocaine and amphetamines). Note that these prevalence rates refer to fully developed disorders, not merely symptoms of anxiety or use of substances.” Ms. Teplin added, “Nearly 85 percent of girls report one or more traumatic life events, such as having been attacked physically or beaten badly; 15 percent meet criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the past year. Significantly more girls (27.1 percent) than boys (9.8 percent) have ever attempted suicide. Nearly one-third of girls report sexual victimization with force, compared with less than five percent of boys. Such traumatic events in childhood are risk factors for poor psychological and social outcomes.”
Ms. Teplin explained the implications of the data on juvenile justice policy, saying, “By law, youth with serious mental disorders should receive mental health treatment while incarcerated. Federal courts have affirmed that detainees with serious mental disorders have a right to receive needed treatment as part of the state’s obligation to provide needed medical care under the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment (barring cruel and unusual punishment) and Fourteenth Amendment (right to substantive due process for youth in the juvenile justice system)…Advocacy groups, researchers, and public policy experts are concerned that the juvenile justice system has become the only alternative for treatment for many poor and minority youth with psychiatric disorders. Reports from the Government Accountability Office and the U.S. House Committee on [Oversight and] Government Reform demonstrate that a portion of those in juvenile detention are not facing any delinquency charges and remain in these settings only as they await community mental health services…Based on our findings, we recommend that the juvenile justice system provide for the mental health needs of detained youth and for the specific needs of girls at each point in the juvenile justice system and hope that Congress will give strong consideration to these issues in the reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act [JJDPA (P.L. 93-415)].”
In making recommendations for reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act, The Honorable J. Brian Huff, a judge in Birmingham, Alabama, said, “A change to the JJDPA that I believe is most critical to protect vulnerable and exploited girls has already been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee this past December, in the form of an amendment to the JJDPA’s core requirement on Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders. The amendment, which received bipartisan approval as part of S. 678 [the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization Act]in the committee, calls upon states to eliminate the ‘valid court order (or VCO) exception’ a loophole that allows judges to place status offenders in locked detention…If passed into law, the court orders…that I described would no longer be allowable. Judges would no longer be able to lock up non-delinquent girls out of frustration or a misguided sense of protectiveness. Furthermore, eliminating the VCO comports with law or practice in approximately two dozen states and territories already. Testimony given at the time of the passage of the JJDPA cited that status offenders should be ‘channeled away’ from lock-ups and toward human service agencies and professionals to avoid creating greater social, emotional, family, and/or peer-group upheaval among this highly vulnerable population. Yet, the JJDPA law has not adequately addressed alternatives along a continuum of home and community-connected services that would more appropriately and effectively address the needs of status offenders and their families.”
Rachel Carrión, board member of the Community Connections for Youth in New York; Cameron Romer, York County Probation Officer in Pennsylvania; and Gary Ivory, southwest president and national director of Program Development Youth Advocate Programs in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, also testified.
