Institutional Corrections for Juveniles

• Author: Chad R. Trulson
• DOI: 10.1177/1541204006295718
• Published date: 01 January 2007
• Date: 01 January 2007
• Subject Matter: Articles

4

Institutional Corrections

for Juveniles

Special Issue Introduction

More than a year ago, I approached Tory J. Caeti and Eric J. Fritsch, editors of Youth

Violence and Juvenile Justice (YVJJ), and suggested that the journal consider a spe-

cial issue on the subject of juvenile corrections. My request for a special issue on this topic

was initially influenced by a July 2004 YVJJ special issue on Pathways to Desistance guest

edited by Edward P. Mulvey. I found this special issue particularly useful and insightful.

Although no single journal issue can cover any subject in entirety, I felt the Pathways to

Desistance special issue was an up-to-date start for those interested in that topic.

My appeal for a special issue on juvenile corrections was also influenced by what I viewed

as a large gap in the literature on issues related to the state incarceration of juvenile offenders—

those offenders who have reached the “end of the line” in the juvenile justice system. The bulk

of the research attention has focused on why and how these offenders reached the deepest ends

of the juvenile justice system in the first place. This is no doubt an important literature base.

There is also a small but growing amount of attention paid to what happens when state-

committed juvenile offenders are released from confinement. With a few exceptions, however,

relatively little is known about other important and related issues such as the experiences of

these offenders while they are incarcerated, the differences among state-incarcerated males and

females, the management of state juvenile correctional facilities, the progress and problems

with disproportionate minority contact in juvenile justice and its impact on disproportionate

minority confinement, and the potential obstacles to doing research in state juvenile correc-

tional agencies. I felt that a special issue on these or other related topics would be a good start

for those interested in these areas specifically.

The most recent national figures show that between 1997 and 2003, the total number of

juvenile offenders held in secure facilities has decreased 8% nationwide. Despite these

overall changes, on any given day roughly 100,000 juvenile offenders are being held in secure

facilities and programs including detention centers, forestry camps, ranches, boot camps, and

state training schools. Thus, although juvenile facility populations have decreased, there are

still a large number of juveniles held in custodial facilities and programs across the coun-

try. The fact that these populations usually consist of multiple failures in juvenile justice

makes a focus on them even more salient.

This special issue examines issues surrounding those who have reached the end of the

line in the juvenile justice system—state incarceration in a juvenile correctional facility.

With some variation, state juvenile correctional facility populations contain dispropor-

tionate numbers of the most violent, chronic, and least stable youth in American

society—what some consider the “worst” offenders in any particular state. Although

numerous important studies have been produced concerning institutional corrections for

incarcerated adults, only a few studies can be found for their juvenile counterparts. The

lead article in this special issue by Trulson focuses on the determinants of institutional

misconduct among nearly 5,000 male and female state-committed delinquents during

Youth Violence and

Juvenile Justice

Volume 5 Number 1

January 2007 4-6

© 2007 Sage Publications

10.1177/1541204006295718

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