Young Women in Private For-Profit Placements: What Their Advocates Should Know (From Working With Young Women in the Juvenile Justice System, P 47-54, 1987 -- See NCJ-109539)

• NCJ Number: 109546
• Author(s): J C Costello
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: For microfiche, see NCJ-109539.

Annotation

This paper examines the uses and abuses of for-profit secure placements for female juveniles involved in troublesome, nondelinquent behavior.

Abstract

Although secure placement for juvenile status offenders is generally not permitted under juvenile law, problem children from low-income families are often labeled 'delinquent' under various pretexts and committed to private facilities under contract to the state. Middle-class problem juveniles may be committed to private facilities under contract with their parents. In the latter case, for-profit facilities convince parents their children need to be placed in the facility. In many cases the diagnosis is based on the profit motive rather than on a comprehensive, objective analysis of the juvenile's needs. Private facilities under contract to residents' parents are not subject to the same constitutional mandates as state facilities, so residents may suffer civil liberties violations, such as restricting visitation, having personal possessions, and limiting communications. State inspection and credentialing of such facilities may be superficial. The danger signs of a program that inappropriately confines or abuses children are regulations that prohibit unscheduled parental visits, no phone calls, no letters without supervision, and periods of total isolation from parents.