High Country Lockup: Children in Confinement in Colorado

• NCJ Number: 178693
• Author(s): Dorothy Davidson
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 111 pages
• Corporate Author: Human Rights Watch
• Sale Source: Human Rights Watch
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

In Colorado, between July 1996 and January 1997, Human Rights Watch interviewed children and staff at seven State- operated institutions and one private contract facility to determine whether the children were being managed under conditions that comply with U.S. constitutional standards as well as those in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of Their Liberty.

Abstract

This report is limited to conditions of confinement and does not discuss community-based programs. The study found crowding at almost every institution, which was the root of many of the other problems. There was an overrepresentation of minority children in commitment, and there were many children confined who could learn and be supervised in the community without presenting any threat to public safety. There was a use of restraints and punitive segregation in violation of international standards. Other human rights violations included lack of rehabilitative programs and services, the placement of children out of State away from their families, failure to provide sufficient nutrition, unsafe conditions, and unreported incidents of physical and verbal abuse by staff. Like many States, Colorado is moving away from rehabilitative programs designed to prepare children for a constructive return to the community and toward ever-increasing punishment. Among its many recommendations, this report proposes that the State bring its standards for the care and treatment of children in detention and correctional institutions in compliance with international standards. It further recommends that incarceration be replaced with community-based services whenever possible. One recommendation to the Federal Government is that Congress pass legislation that would expand the mandate of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to include a requirement to monitor the conditions of confinement for children in the justice system and states' compliance with U.S. constitutional law in confining children. Appended international standards for the treatment of children