What happens when child services fails a child as s/he grows up? It's likely they may end up in the juvenile justice system. What happens when that child welfare system continues to fail them during and after the child's stint in a juvenile prison? Well, what is unlikely to happen is that they will thrive, be successful and come out more mentally and emotionally stable than when they went in. This is evident in an article that I came across this article earlier this week. This article interestingly hits on the topics of child welfare and juvenile justice.
The author describes the current situation in a Cook County juvenile jail in Illinois. Many youth in this facility have been ordered by their judges to be released. Unfortunately, due to the lack of urgency and apparent lack of care by the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS), they are sitting in their cells because DCFS has not found them a place to go when they are not able to return home. The author states that many of these youth have spent their childhood growing up in the foster care system, bouncing from one foster home to the next. While some of the youth may only wait for a few days or weeks for a placement, the author notes that the longest wait has been just over 6 months. On one particular day that the author was at the facility, there were 19 ‘released’ youth waiting to be picked up, 13 of them were waiting for DCFS.
I am both angry and saddened with the treatment and messages these youth are receiving. If we were to consider what may have led to the child’s placement in the foster care system to begin with, we would recognize that they have faced numerous traumatic experiences and have been afflicted with a variety of risk factors. This is also what ultimately led to their time in juvenile prison. These kids have grown up feeling let down by the system. They know what it is like to be unwanted, unappreciated and disrespected. This by no means justifies their actions that led them to jail, but can we really put all the blame on the child? Now that they have served their time, many of them may feel that they have changed and want to be better people. However, when it is time for their release, they learn that nobody still wants them or is willing to advocate for them. As we have discussed previously, many of these youth have not and are not receiving treatment and while they are waiting, they sit around the negative influences that will not help they progress to be a functioning part of society. If anything, all of these factors will encourage the youth’s negative behavior because after all; it doesn’t really matter when they have nowhere else to go.
http://www.wbez.org/news/illinois-child-welfare-system-leaves-kids-stuck-jail-111576
This is very sad. I understand the difficulty of finding placements for youth, but leaving them in the juvenile prison is unacceptable. I like how you point out that this only enforces that youth's idea that they are unwanted. Why would they bother to change if these are the circumstances they envision for their future as well. This is very disappointing.
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