Correctional Experiences of Youth in Adult and Juvenile Prisons

• NCJ Number: 218982
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 24 Issue: 2 Dated: June 2007 Pages: 247-270
• Author(s): Aaron Kupchik
• Date Published: June 2007
• Length: 24 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Analyzing data from interviews with inmates, this study examined the correctional experiences of young men incarcerated through the adult criminal court.

Abstract

The results suggest that the two facility types: adult correctional facilities and juvenile correctional facilities do indeed differ from one another but in complex ways. The juvenile facilities offer better access to counseling and treatment services than adult facilities. Adult facility respondents gave more favorable ratings to availability of institutional services. Juvenile facilities are more likely to positively assess staff-inmate interaction. According to the reports of inmates, adult facilities fail to foster positive staff-inmate interaction. With lower inmate-to-staff ratios and a greater emphasis on counseling by each staff member than in adult facilities, juvenile facilities might indeed create more therapeutic environments when it comes to individual interactions between inmates and staff. However, according to inmates, juvenile facilities seem to do worse at providing access to a variety of institutional services than adult facilities. In addition, reported experiences of young adults will be similar across these two types of facilities due to security needs and other commonalities of correctional facilities. The results suggest that correctional experiences of inmates in juvenile institutions and adult institutions are substantially different from one another. Over the last few decades, an increasing number of offenders younger than 18 have been prosecuted and punished in criminal court rather than juvenile court. A long-term consequence of this practice is that States increasingly rely on adult jails and prisons to house violent adolescent offenders. To address the question of whether the use of juvenile facilities for transferred youth allows for different correctional experience than in adult facilities, this study analyzed data from interviews with staff and incarcerated young adults in two types of correctional facilities within a large Northeastern State: facilities operated by the State’s children’s services bureau, and department of corrections facilities. Tables, references and appendixes A-B