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| Feds change way prisons treat teens |
| By timesdaily.com - Mary Sell Montgomery Bureau |
| Published: 11/19/2013 |
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In the four-year period ending in 2012, 253 teenagers younger than 18 were in Alabama Department of Corrections’ facilities. The youngest were two 15 year olds, according to department records. While state law allows offenders as young as 14 to be locked up as adults and with adults, the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act will soon change how the state treats offenders under 18. The act mandates they be confined separately, away from older inmates. Failing to do so will put the state at risk of losing some minimal federal funding. Some groups, such as the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center, say youths never should have been locked up with adults in the first place, and don’t belong within corrections department’s walls now. In addition to being “prey” in prison, teens can come out more dangerous than when they entered, those groups say. “Instead of changing negative behavior, they just learn more bad behavior,” said Ebony Howard, a staff attorney and juvenile justice policy specialist for Southern Poverty. An official with the state’s Department of Youth Services said that agency isn’t equipped to house dangerous teens. State leaders said the cost is also a factor in how young offenders are handled. “In order to create the extensive programs that Southern Poverty or others want, it is going to require a lot of money — money we don’t have,” said state Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, who is chairman of the Joint Legislative Prison Committee. Read More. |
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