Report: State spends $160,000 a year to lock up a young person

The Juvenile Policy Institute is a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., and is dedicated to reducing incarceration.

“It is viewed as a state that is largely doing a good job,” Schindler said of North Carolina.

But North Carolina, like other states, could spend more on treatment than on locking up juveniles in detention centers, he said.

A person under the age of 16 is considered a juvenile in North Carolina, one of only two states that prosecutes 16- and 17-year-olds as adults.

The report culled data from 46 states and calculated indirect costs that taxpayers pay for incarcerating juveniles. The report estimates that long-term costs total $8 billion to $21 billion a year. Schindler said that when young people are incarcerated, they are less likely to graduate from high school. Research also indicates that when they are released from detention centers, they have a harder time finding a job and often end up committing more crimes.

According to the report, indirect costs are a result of lost wages and tax revenue because those juveniles don’t find work; recidivism; additional Medicare and Medicaid spending because they will need public assistance; and lawsuits, medical care and therapy that result from sexual assaults on juveniles who are incarcerated.

Nationally, the number of incarcerated juveniles decreased 45 percent between 2001 and 2011, from 267,000 to 147,000. Schindler said that without that decline, the estimated indirect costs would have skyrocketed to $14 billion to $39 billion a year.

North Carolina was among 33 states that spent $100,000 or more incarcerating a juvenile in what is the most expensive confinement option. The average cost was $148,767 a year for each young person. North Carolina spent $159,750 a year, according to the report.

But Schindler cautioned that some states, such as North Carolina, are also investing in community-based programs that focus on treatment and prevention. And some states are spending more because the number of youth confined has dropped but the overhead costs haven’t, the report notes.

In Forsyth County, officials said they are working to reduce the number of juveniles who are incarcerated. Last year, Forsyth County used a $1.23 million federal grant to start a juvenile drug-treatment court for youth ages 12 to 16 who have substance abuse problems and have been sentenced to probation in juvenile court.

“From my own experience being in the local community, we know and believe every dollar that we spend on treatment for some of these young people saves a significant amount of money on the other end,” said Dr. Sam Gray, juvenile court psychologist for Forsyth County. “The challenge is, we’re not spending enough on treatment.”

Gray said the county’s juvenile crime prevention council meets regularly and has several programs designed to keep young people from being incarcerated.

Of course, Gray said, some young people have to be incarcerated because they are violent and dangerous to public safety. But others can be diverted from the criminal justice system, he said.

Reclaiming Futures, a national program, has a local initiative in Forsyth County that offers alternatives to incarceration. Jemi Sneed, the project director for Reclaiming Futures in Forsyth County, said timing is critical.

“The earlier we get them involved in treatment, the better we can put them on a better path,” she said.

And that’s the focus of the county’s juvenile drug-treatment program, Sneed said.

The report from the Juvenile Policy Institute also said that racial disparity continues to be an issue in the juvenile justice system. Black youth are five times more likely to be incarcerated than whites, and Hispanic youth are two times more likely to be incarcerated than whites, according to the report.

Alvin Atkinson, the executive director of the Center for Community Safety at Winston-Salem State University, said the racial disparity continues to be an issue in Forsyth County. The county has a disproportionate minority contact committee that meets regularly to discuss the issue.

There are a number of contributing factors to the disparity, including income, education and decision-making, Atkinson said. In some cases, a minority student is referred to juvenile court for an incident while a white student’s parents are called, he said.

“It’s a really big challenge when the whole aspects of economics and education permeate throughout our African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods,” Atkinson said.

Schindler said North Carolina can still make improvements. Efforts to raise the age to 18 for prosecution as an adult have failed numerous times in the N.C. General Assembly, for example.

“There’s still work to be done,” Schindler said.

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