Twenty-two-year-old Bronx native Randy, who asked us to use only his first name for anonymity, entered into foster care when he was 10, moving through 13 placements and three boroughs of New York City during his time in the system. When he was 14, Randy got into a fight with another boy in his foster home: “The foster parent was quick to call 911 instead of mediating and resolving the issue,” says Randy.
It was his first arrest and neither of the boys were seriously injured, but Randy was incarcerated for 14 months in juvenile detention.
“I feel like since I’m just a black kid in foster care [the justice system] doesn’t want to see us given opportunities or help us grow.”
According to the latest data, there are 437,500 children in America’s foster care system, who like Randy, face a disproportionate risk of being incarcerated. The problem is so severe that one quarter of foster care alumni will become involved with the criminal justice system within two years of leaving care. Black youth, LGBTQ youth and those with mental illnesses are more likely to be in foster care, and discrimination in the system exacerbates these populations’ already disproportionate vulnerabilities to criminalization. Advocates refer to the “foster care-to-prison pipeline” to describe the practices and policies that funnel young people from the child welfare system into the criminal justice system.
Juvenile justice involvement has particularly adverse effects on foster youth because it can impact their treatment and home placements for the rest of their time in foster care, according to advocates. “As soon as kids get labeled [as ‘bad’ kids] it’s really hard for them to get unlabeled,” says Christina Wilson Remlin, lead counsel for Children’s Rights, an organization that works to change the child welfare system through legal action. “For teenagers in foster care, they’re already a group of kids that our society looks down on and thinks is troubled, so having a juvenile justice charge only exacerbates all those existing vulnerabilities.”
Being incarcerated as a juvenile increases foster youth’s risks for continued involvement with the criminal justice system. In NYC, where Randy was in the system, 57.1% of young people who were in both foster care and the juvenile justice system experience incarceration within six years of exiting care, as compared to 14.7% of all NYC foster alumni.
When he was 17, Randy got into another altercation for which he was charged with assault. Because New York is one of the last states that allows 16- and 17-year-olds to be prosecuted as adults, a policy that will be phased out by 2019, Randy was still a teenager when he was incarcerated for eight months on Rikers Island, the city’s adult jail complex.
“In both cases I wasn’t given the opportunity to show that I was a better person. They were quick to throw the time and throw the sentences on me instead of looking for ways to help me grow so it won’t happen again,” says Randy. “I feel like since I’m just a black kid in foster care [the justice system] doesn’t want to see us given opportunities or help us grow.”
Randy went to school while he was on Rikers Island, but none of those credits ended up transferring toward his high school diploma. As a result, Randy didn’t finish high school until January 2017. Because of his criminal record, Randy also had his application to NYC public housing denied. Housing support is critical for former foster youth, as over one fifth face homelessness after age 18.
Like Randy, many foster youth have the police called on them by their caregivers and face incarceration for small infractions. Foster youth in government-run group homes are particularly at risk of having police called on them by staff, Jarel Melendez, a youth advocate at Lawyers For Children who grew up in foster care, says. Behaviors for which group home staff call police include verbal arguments, physical fights, throwing things, running away, smoking marijuana or even masturbation, according to advocates.
“A lot of group home staff are not as educated as you would hope. Some just have a high school diploma or a GED, so [there is a] lack of education, training, and experience,” says Jarel. “If a young person has an episode because of the trauma and emotional circumstances that they faced, instead of matching [the young person’s] adolescent behavior one would think [staff] would demonstrate professionalism to them. But that’s not the case a lot of time.”
Foster children can also face an increased risk of arrest in school because they may not have a parent to pick them up or advocate on their behalf, according to Jarel. “Teachers and school staff may not know the particular system that you’re involved with, but they know there’s a lot of different people coming for you that’s not your biological family,” Jarel says. “So for foster youth, a lot of times it’s easiest for the school to call the police to get somebody to come in.”
Certain populations within foster youth are disproportionately at risk for criminalization, too. Black children are around twice as likely to be placed in foster care as white kids. Because black kids are already subject to disproportionate rates of school discipline and criminalization, being a foster youth compounds this risk. Foster youth, particularly girls, are targeted by sex traffickers, and the criminalization of sex work can funnel these victims of modern-day slavery into the criminal justice system.
Another major driver of the foster care-to-prison pipeline is the criminalization of mental illness. Foster children often have serious trauma and mental illness, and some advocates believe they are routinely over-prescribed psychotropic medications and under-served with the therapy and trauma-informed care they need to heal. NPR reported that, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office analysis, foster youth are up to four times as likely to be prescribed antipsychotic drugs as other minors, and that hundreds of children are on five or more psychotropic medications at once, something not supported by medical evidence.
Foster youth can be locked up for going through a mental health crisis. California resident Arianna, a 23-year-old whose first name is provided for anonymity, says that she went to juvenile hall four times, twice for fighting and twice for mental health crises. “I had to stay there for like three weeks and it was terrifying,” Arianna says about the first time she was incarcerated for a mental health crisis. “The lady told me that if I didn’t calm down she would have to restrain me.”
Arianna entered foster care at age 15 after showing up to school with bruises from her mom, who she says was “mentally, verbally, and physically abusive.” Foster care was supposed to keep her safe, but Arianna says it “made things worse.” She was constantly bounced around between group homes and stints in juvenile hall. Although she’s been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, and anxiety, Arianna was provided with minimal and sporadic mental health care.
Being incarcerated instead of receiving the support she needed has had serious consequences on Arianna’s life. She’s been homeless and couch surfing since she aged out of a housing program for foster youth two years ago. Although she completed almost two years of college, she ended up dropping out due to severe anxiety.
“Stuff would get overwhelming too fast because I didn’t know how to handle things,” Arianna says. “My mind would automatically self-destruct itself, like ‘it’s going to turn bad.’ Because it’s always turned bad.”
Advocates support a number of solutions to combat the foster care-to-prison pipeline. Young people need adequate mental health services, with close regulation of the use of psychotropic medications on children. Trauma-informed care should be implemented in all systems dealing with children. They believe there should be a drastic reduction or elimination of group homes, with strict regulations on when staff can call the police. All states should pass and implement anti-discrimination policies to protect LGBTQ youth in the child welfare system, which currently only exist in 27 states and D.C. At the end of the day, advocates stress that all young people should be granted the same levels of compassion and second chances.
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