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Indiana ranks sixth among states with the most juveniles locked up, a grade that should prompt the state to re-examine its youth justice system, a report released today said.
The latest Kids Count Data Book shows an estimated 2,616 youths were in custody in Indiana on any given day in 2006, the latest year U.S. census data were available.
The state-by-state report, released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, said Indiana’s rate of detained and committed youths was 183 per 100,000 youths, above the national rate of 125 per 100,000 youths.
Of those, 74 percent were in custody for non-violent offenses, compared with 66 percent nationally, according to the study.
The Indiana Youth Institute, a non-profit organization that released the report in Indiana, said it hoped the state would study the research to determine why Indiana’s rates of juvenile defenders are higher than other states.
The report noted that children who remain in contact with the juvenile justice system don’t go as far with their education, work and earn less, experience chronic health problems, fail to form enduring families and are more likely to be imprisoned again later in life.
The rate at which youths are released from juvenile detention is also alarming, said Doug Church, president of the Indiana State Bar Association, which is sponsoring a pilot program in six counties that screens youths entering detention centers for mental illness.
Church said 50 percent to 80 percent of youths released from juvenile detention centers are rearrested within three years.
According to the Indiana Youth Institute, which has studied the issue, collaborative community programs that involve parents, schools, courts, law enforcement and social services can work to reduce juvenile detention costs and recidivism.
Sharon Gerig, chaplain and executive director of Allen County Youth Chaplaincy, firmly believes that.
The non-profit organization launched in 2004. Gerig and volunteers in the organization can enter the youth centers in Fort Wayne when youths request them or when staff feel they are needed, such as if a youth tries to commit suicide.
The chaplaincy group has also partnered with area churches and Fort Wayne Area Youth for Christ to create Revolution, a weekly gathering time for fellowship among incarcerated youth.
While the program is in its early stages, the youth who have participated in Revolution meetings have so far shown a 14 percent recidivism rate, Gerig said.
The Casey Foundation report also notes that blacks and other youths from racial minorities are far more likely than whites to end up in juvenile detention. The new Indiana Commission on Disproportionality plans to study that issue and make recommendations to the state in the fall.
Dawn Marseilles, director of juvenile justice ministries for Fort Wayne Area Youth for Christ, said her organization has plans to expand its ministry to job-placement assistance and school tutoring. The organization already does some of this, but a large group of mentors should be in place by fall to launch an organized program, she said.
aturner@jg.netThe Associated Press contributed to this story.
