day 4 research

Youth Prison Conditions

Locking children away in juvenile prisons steals a piece of humanity from all of us. When we condone putting young people behind bars in desolate, violent institutions far from their homes and communities, we are complicit in the destruction of their childhood. Sadly, Louisiana has one of the highest rates of juvenile incarceration in the country and the overwhelming majority of the young people locked away are poor and Black. Nearly two-thirds are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses and many of the youth have special mental health needs that never received treatment. JJPL believes all children deserve a real chance at life. Placing young people in prisons not only deprives them of true opportunities for growth and healthy change, but puts communities at risk by failing to properly address why children are at risk in the first place.

JJPL fights on several fronts to challenge the way the state handles our delinquent young people, particularly those confined in juvenile prisons. In 1998, JJPL filed a class action lawsuit challenging the brutal conditions of confinement at the then privately-owned Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth. About a year later, JJPL filed another class action lawsuit against the privately-owned Jena Juvenile Justice Center. As a result of the litigation both the the Tallulah Jena facilities were shut down. Together with the United States Department of Justice, JJPL and private plaintiffs entered into a settlement agreement addressing the multitude of issues raised in the lawsuits including: abusive treatment of youth and ineffective reporting and investigations of such abuse, lack of meaningful access to the courts, lack of medical and mental health care, and lack of education and special education services. Today, JJPL continues to monitor the conditions at Jetson, Swanson, and Bridge City correctional center’s for youth, seeking to ensure that abuses are immediately addressed and that children are appropriately cared for. See Youth Prison Watch.