Many Juvenile Jails Are Now Almost Entirely Filled With Young People of Color

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/03/08/many-juvenile-jails-are-now-almost-entirely-filled-with-young-people-of-color

White youths were being released from juvenile detention centers at a far higher rate than their Black peers during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, and young people of color have since been detained for longer than they were before the crisis, according to data gathered by a leading children’s philanthropy.

So many kids were freed from jail last year that by late summer, fewer children were incarcerated than at any point since at least the 1980s. But many youth facilities are increasingly holding almost entirely Black and Latino teens, according to interviews with more than a dozen juvenile justice officials and attorneys in seven states.
This article was published in partnership with The Guardian.

Though the racial inequality in youth detention has long been vast, it’s wider than ever, experts say. They point to several possible explanations, including bias from judges and other officials, and young people of color being detained for more serious offenses and having fewer alternatives to incarceration in their communities.

“It’s fitting that in 2020, the year that juxtaposed COVID and racial justice protests, we saw this shrinking of the system — but also a resistance to doing so for young Black people,” said Patricia Soung, a juvenile attorney and former director of youth justice policy for the Children’s Defense Fund in California.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. Thanks.

[Solly Mack]

4. The prison system in America is part and parcel to racist oppression.

Class oppression. Oppression Full Stop.

No need to thank me. It's yet another thing I'd like to see changed for the better. My list is long, sadly.

And change comes too slow.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. Yep. It's a tool to uphold white supremacy.

I hear you about the list, and change coming too slowly.

[uponit7771]

3. K&R, this is the real crisis not a pent up number of children at the border