Juvenile Justice Is Smaller, but More Unequal, After First Year of COVID-19
A year after the coronavirus pandemic began, the Annie E. Casey Foundation finds that a historic drop in the size of the youth detention population at the beginning of 2020 did nothing to reduce the already huge racial and ethnic disparities in who gets detained, despite the health concerns of confinement during the pandemic and a national reckoning about racial justice. In fact, the overrepresentation of Black and Latino youth in detention was worse at the start of 2021 than it was the year prior.
The Foundation’s findings are based on a new survey that measured month-to-month changes in the use of secure detention by juvenile justice agencies in 2020. The Foundation captured trends in close to real time from more than 140 jurisdictions in 33 states, representing more than 30% of the nation’s youth population (ages 10 to 17).
Admissions to detention for all youth, regardless of race or ethnicity, plummeted in 2020. However, of the youth in detention, Black and Latino youth were more likely to linger there than their white peers, who were quicker to be released.
“Jurisdictions are striving for greater equity and less reliance on detention, but they cannot advance those goals unless they find ways to expedite releases from detention for Black and Latino youth,” said Nate Balis, the director of the Foundation’s Juvenile Justice Strategy Group.
The following charts tell the story.
On Jan. 1, 2021, detention facilities participating in the survey held about 35% fewer young people than on March 1, 2020. Ninety percent of that decrease happened in the first two months of the pandemic (from March 1 to May 1, 2020). Since then, the detention population has fluctuated within a narrow range, gradually rising in the summer and fall of 2020 and then falling in November and December. The population in detention is a function of two things: how many young people are admitted, and how long they stay. A slowdown in the monthly release rate has been pushing the youth detention population significantly higher.
If the release rate had stayed at its peak level of 64% in every month since March, one of every three young people in detention at that time would have been home.
However, racial and ethnic disparities have worsened as white youth were released at a faster rate than their non-white peers. Among survey sites that provide data disaggregated by race and ethnicity, the detention population fell by more than 30% across all groups from March 1 to May 1. But since then, trends have diverged, favoring white youth. From May 1, 2020, to Jan. 1, 2021, 10% fewer white youth were detained, compared with 2% fewer Black youth and 3% fewer Latino youth.
When the pandemic took hold in March, systems accelerated releases across all racial and ethnic groups. Over the summer and fall, disparities in the release rate grew substantially. As a result, by the end of 2020, the gap in the rate at which white youth and youth of color were released was nearly twice as large as before the pandemic, growing from four percentage points in February to seven percentage points in December. If all youth had been released at the same rate as white youth in every month since the start of the pandemic, the non-white population on Jan. 1, 2021, would have been 28% lower than it was.
Against this backdrop, it is especially concerning that December and January saw the highest prevalence to date of COVID-19 cases among both youth and staff in detention centers. On the day they completed the January survey, jurisdictions reported 133 active cases among youth and 550 active cases among staff.
These year-end findings demonstrate an urgent need for juvenile justice agencies to overcome obstacles to expediting releases from detention, especially for young people of color. Systems can use proven approaches to accelerating releases from detention and ask themselves tough questions to guide their response to the pandemic.
The Foundation will continue its monthly survey of juvenile justice throughout 2021 to assess the effects of the pandemic on juvenile justice systems.
"Mwaka mmoja baada ya janga la coronavirus kuanza, Taasisi ya Annie E. Casey inagundua kuwa kupungua kwa kihistoria kwa ukubwa wa idadi ya watu wa uhamisho wa vijana mwanzoni mwa 2020 hakukufanya chochote kupunguza tofauti kubwa za kikabila na kikabila katika ""ni nani anayekamatwa"" licha ya wasiwasi wa afya wa kufungwa wakati wa janga hilo na hesabu ya kitaifa juu ya haki ya kikabila." Kwa kweli, uwakilishi wa juu wa vijana weusi na wa Kilatino katika kizuizini ulikuwa mbaya zaidi mwanzoni mwa 2021 kuliko ilivyokuwa mwaka uliopita. Utafiti huo unaonyesha kuwa idadi ya watu waliofungwa katika magereza ya vijana ilibadilika kila mwezi katika mwaka wa 2020. Shirika hilo lilipata mwelekeo wa karibu kwa wakati halisi kutoka kwa mamlaka zaidi ya 140 katika majimbo 33, ikiwakilisha zaidi ya 30% ya idadi ya vijana wa taifa (miaka 10 hadi 17). Idadi ya vijana waliofungwa jela bila kujali rangi au kabila, imepungua sana mwaka 2020. Hata hivyo, vijana weusi na Latinos walikuwa na uwezekano mkubwa zaidi wa kukaa huko kuliko wenzao weupe, ambao walikuwa haraka kuachiliwa. "Utawala wa nchi zinazojulikana kwa sheria za kisheria unajitahidi kupata usawa zaidi na kutegemea kidogo kwa uhamisho, lakini hawawezi kuendeleza malengo hayo isipokuwa watapata njia za kuharakisha kutolewa kwa uhamisho kwa vijana weusi na wa Kilatini, "alisema Nate Balis, mkurugenzi wa Kikundi cha Mkakati wa Haki ya Vijana wa Foundation." Chati ifuatayo inaeleza hadithi hiyo. Mnamo Januari 1, 2021, vituo vya kizuizini vilivyohusika katika uchunguzi huo vilikuwa na vijana wachache kwa asilimia 35 kuliko Machi 1, 2020. Asilimia 90 ya kupungua huko ilitokea katika miezi miwili ya kwanza ya janga hilo (kuanzia Machi 1 hadi Mei 1, 2020). Tangu wakati huo, idadi ya watu waliofungwa imebadilika ndani ya safu nyembamba, ikiongezeka hatua kwa hatua katika majira ya joto na vuli ya 2020 na kisha ikishuka mnamo Novemba na Desemba. Idadi ya watu waliofungwa ni kazi ya mambo mawili: ni vijana wangapi wanaokubaliwa, na wanakaa kwa muda gani. Kupungua kwa kiwango cha kila mwezi cha kuachiliwa kumekuwa kukisukuma idadi ya watu wa uhamisho wa vijana kwa kiasi kikubwa. """Ikiwa kiwango cha kuachiliwa kimeendelea kuwa juu ya asilimia 64 kila mwezi tangu Machi, mmoja kati ya vijana watatu waliofungwa wakati huo angekuwa nyumbani." Hata hivyo, tofauti za rangi na kikabila zimezidi kuwa mbaya kwa kuwa vijana weupe waliachiliwa kwa kasi zaidi kuliko wenzao wasio weupe. Katika maeneo ya utafiti ambayo hutoa data iliyogawanywa kwa jamii na kikabila, idadi ya watu waliokamatwa ilipungua kwa zaidi ya 30% katika vikundi vyote kutoka Machi 1 hadi Mei 1. Lakini tangu wakati huo, mwelekeo umebadilika, ukiwa unawapendelea vijana weupe. Kuanzia Mei 1, 2020 hadi Januari 1, 2021, vijana weupe walifungwa 10% chini, ikilinganishwa na vijana weusi 2% chini na vijana wa Latino 3% chini. Wakati janga hilo lilipotokea Machi, mifumo iliongeza kasi ya kutolewa kwa watu katika makundi yote ya rangi na makabila. Katika majira ya kiangazi na vuli, tofauti katika kiwango cha kutolewa iliongezeka sana. "Kwa hivyo, kufikia mwishoni mwa 2020, pengo katika kiwango ambacho vijana weupe na vijana wa rangi waliachiliwa karibu mara mbili kubwa kuliko kabla ya janga hilo, ikikua kutoka asilimia nne mwezi Februari hadi asilimia saba mwezi Desemba.""" """Ikiwa vijana wote wangekuwa wamewekwa huru kwa kiwango sawa na vijana weupe kila mwezi tangu kuanza kwa janga hilo, idadi ya watu wasio weupe mnamo Januari 1, 2021 ingekuwa chini ya 28% kuliko ilivyo." "Kwa kuzingatia hali hii, ni jambo la wasiwasi hasa kwamba Desemba na Januari ziliona kuenea kwa juu zaidi hadi sasa kwa kesi za COVID-19 kati ya vijana na wafanyikazi katika vituo vya kizuizini. """ Katika siku ambayo walihitimu uchunguzi wa Januari, mamlaka ziliripoti kesi 133 za kazi kati ya vijana na kesi 550 za kazi kati ya wafanyikazi. Matokeo haya ya mwisho wa mwaka yanaonyesha haja ya haraka kwa mashirika ya haki ya vijana kushinda vikwazo vya kuharakisha kutolewa kutoka kwa kizuizini, haswa kwa vijana wa rangi. Mifumo inaweza kutumia mbinu zilizothibitishwa kuharakisha kutolewa kutoka kwa kizuizini na kujiuliza maswali magumu kuongoza majibu yao kwa janga hilo. Shirika hilo litazingatia uchunguzi wa kila mwezi wa haki za vijana katika mwaka 2021 ili kutathmini athari za janga hilo kwenye mifumo ya haki za vijana.