Page 18
The INDEPENDENT, October 19, 2011
Report says juvenile justice system could be more effective
by Chris Thomas, Oregon
News Service
More than a third of Oregon
young people who have been
incarcerated are convicted of
felonies within three years of
their release.
A new report from the Annie
E. Casey Foundation sheds
light on that figure, with evi-
dence that youth correctional
facilities don’t stop recidivism
and don’t benefit public safety.
It also says incarceration
wastes taxpayers’ money with
large corrections or training
centers when smaller, treat-
ment-oriented facilities cost
less and get better results.
Mark McKechnie is execu-
tive director of Youth Rights
and Justice, attorneys who
serve as youth public defend-
ers in Multnomah County. He
agrees with the findings and
says he hopes the report
prompts Oregon to rethink the
way it handles young offend-
ers, ‘“I think it’s somewhat con-
venient for states who are
struggling with budget ques-
tions that in most cases, the
most effective approaches to
juvenile justice also happen to
be less expensive than what
most states are doing current-
ly.”
About 60 percent of young
offenders have mental health
issues, according to the Ore-
gon Youth Authority. McKech-
nie says it’s a problem schools
and state agencies are not
doing enough to address, “Our
experience is that, in many
cases, those needs were not
being met before they entered
the juvenile justice system. I
think you could draw a pretty
clear line connecting the lack of
help for their mental-health
needs to their behavior that got
them into the justice system.”
The report makes six recom-
mendations to help states im-
prove their juvenile-justice sys-
tems. One is to do more for fos-
ter children, who face many of
the same risks as young of-
fenders. Bart Lubow, the Casey
Foundation’s Juvenile Justice
Strategy Group director, says
another recommendation is to
ease up on “zero-tolerance”
policies at schools and focus
instead on getting youths the
help they need before they
break the law, “The largest sin-
See Juvenile on page 19
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