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As schools across the country close their doors to support social distancing and reduce the spread of COVID-19, another set of doors remain locked and closed for some of our nation’s most vulnerable youth—those in our youth prisons. As we attempt to contain the coronavirus spread, the safety and care of youth in locked custody should be of particular concern. In China and Iran, catastrophic COVID-19 outbreaks occurred in prisons. We must take decisive action to protect young people in those settings in the US.

As Youth Correctional Leaders for Justice Steering Committee members Marc Schindler and Vincent Schiraldi recently wrote: While most young people are at lower risk from the virus, youth in the justice system are less healthy than their peers. They have more gaps in Medicaid enrollment and higher rates of asthma, which increases the severity of COVID-19. Locking youth up exacerbates mental illness, dramatically increases the risk of self-harm and is associated with risks lasting into adulthood, including poorer overall general health and increased incidence of suicide.

On any given day, about 43,580[1] youth are incarcerated in facilities across the country, many of which have between 50-200 beds and some of which were constructed over a century ago.[2] In many cases, these facilities are far removed from youths’ homes and communities, creating a great deal of fear and uncertainty for families and loved ones, particularly in this time of national crisis.

During a time of immense uncertainty, the undersigned current and former leaders of youth correctional agencies across the country collectively offer the following recommendations, guidance, and resources for youth justice leaders navigating critical decisions for the safety and health of youth and families in their care amidst the COVID-19 crisis. 

Recommendations:

• Release youth who can be safely cared for in their homes and communities. Guidance has been clear that locked settings were an unsuccessful model for addressing youth crime even before the pandemic, and are dangerous at this time, with youth facilities placing staff and youth at risk because of these facilities’ size, age, and condition.

• Prioritize the immediate release of medically vulnerable youth
• Immediately release all youth that already have scheduled release dates within 90 days.
• End or dramatically curtail new admissions to these facilities.
• Provide emergency funding to community-based organizations to safely divert more young people from incarceration. 
• Ensure that every released youth has a caregiver with the necessary preparation and resources to support their safety and success. Discharge planning should include connecting families to health care and other essential supports.

• Work with courts, prosecutors, and police to reduce the number of young people who are in contact with their systems. Police can issue citations instead of arresting youth for all but the most serious and violent charges, prosecutors can advocate for release of such youth, and courts can eliminate in-person hearings and require consideration of the health consequences of every part of the justice system.

• Eliminate fines and fees. Fines and fees disproportionately harm low-income families. In this time of widespread unemployment, systems should suspend them immediately.

• Discharge youth on probation and aftercare who are doing well. These programs require families to come to offices - often via public transportation - and wait in close quarters with others. Research finds little support for in-office visits, which should be immediately halted, while youth who have been complying consistently with probation requirements for a substantial time period should be considered for early discharge from supervision. Discharge planning should ensure that youth will have continued access to health care and other essential services.

• Establish a Coronavirus safety plan While this pandemic is unlike anything our country has seen before, it is important to ensure that all youth justice agencies develop a complete safety plan to ensure comprehensive and coordinated implementation across the entire agency. This not only includes typical health measures such as ensuring all staff and youth have proper access to cleaning and sanitation supplies, and instructions to sanitize all surfaces throughout the day, but also ensuring mental health is not forgotten and that young people have resources, support, and contact with loved ones.

• Identify and separate youth with pre-existing medical conditions that put them at high risk. This recommendation, it should be noted, is not a suggestion that youth be placed in solitary or conditions that in any way resemble it. It’s well established that solitary confinement puts young people at risk of long-lasting psychiatric harm.

• Ensure connection to family and loved ones. Wherever possible, continuing to foster connection between youth and family through in-person visitation is encouraged. As an extra precaution,      jurisdictions can consider staggering visitation times to increase social distancing and require those who are sick to opt for video or phone calls. When in-person visitation is not possible, facilities should use a systematic approach to ensure equity, provide free, unlimited phone and video calls or access to email for youth to contact their families and loved ones.

• Continue to operate schools in facilities. For youth who need to remain in facilities, schools should continue to operate if possible. If not, coursework and educational materials should continue to be provided to youth each day, and distance learning should be undertaken if possible.

• Replace any activities or programs typically run by outside volunteers or service providers to ensure days are filled with positive activities. Many facilities have taken the step of reducing or eliminating outside volunteers from entering the facilities to avoid potential spread of the virus. However, in order to reduce idle time and continue to support the development, wellbeing, and safety of young people and staff, it is important to fill these gaps with productive activities.

• Equip and instruct facility staff, including probation, aftercare officers, and case managers, to contact all families to provide regular updates and information about the safety and wellbeing of their children. While it is certainly best practice to regularly update families and loved ones about the health, progress and wellbeing of their child, it is especially important to increase updates during this time. These updates can also be complemented with regular updates about responsive policy and protocol on an agency website.

• Provide mental and physical health resources to youth in custody. While attending to physical health during this time is critical, it is also important to provide support and resources to help young people understand and process what is going on and what they can do to stay safe and healthy.

[1] Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Trends and characteristics of youth in residential placement, 2017. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau

[2] Youth First Initiative. The Facts Report: The Geography of America’s Dysfunctional and Racially Disparate Youth Incarceration Complex. See https://www.nokidsinprison.org/the-facts

Anne Marie Ambrose, Former Commissioner, Department of Human Services for the City of Philadelphia; Former Bureau Director of Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Services for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 

Phyllis Becker, Former Director, Missouri Division of Youth Services

Susan Burke, Former Director, Utah Division of Juvenile Justice Services

Joyce Burrell, Former Director, New York Division of Juvenile Justice and Opportunities for Youth

Gladys Carrión, Former Commissioner, New York City Administration for Children’s Services; Former Commissioner, New York State Office of Children and Family Services

Carey Cockerell, Former Commissioner, Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice; Former Commissioner Texas Department of Family and Protective Services; Former Director, Juvenile Services, Tarrant County, TX

Tim Decker, Former Director of the Missouri Division of Youth Services and the Missouri Children's Division

Earl Dunlap, Former CEO National Partnership for Juvenile Services and National Juvenile Detention Association; Former Transitional Administrator appointed by US Federal Court for the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center

Peter Edelman, Former Director of the New York State Division for Youth

Henry Gonzales, Executive Director, Harris County Juvenile Probation

Mike Griffiths, Former Executive Director, Texas Juvenile Justice Department

Deborah Hodges, Former Director of the Lucas County Juvenile Court, Toledo, Ohio

Candice Jones, President & CEO, Public Welfare Foundation; Former Director, Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice

Joe Leavey, Acting Director of Probation and Court Services, Juvenile Probation Department, Cook County, IL

Scott MacDonald, Former Chief Probation Officer, Santa Cruz, CA

Mark Masterson, Former Director, Sedgwick County Department of Corrections

Patrick McCarthy, Former Division Director, Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families

Mark Mertens, Administrator, Division of Youth and Family Services, Milwaukee County

David Muhammad, Former Chief Probation Officer, Alameda County, CA

Charles Parkins,  Former Director, Colorado Division of Youth Corrections

Michael Rohan, Former Chief of the Cook County Juvenile Probation Department

Dr. Robert K. Ross,  Former Director, Health & Human Services, San Diego County, CA 

Ellen Schall, Former Commissioner of the NYC Department of Juvenile Justice 

Marc Schindler, Former Interim Director, Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, Washington, D.C.  

Vincent Schiraldi, Former Director, Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, Washington, D.C.; Former Commissioner, New York City Department of Probation

Ira Schwartz, Former Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Mark Steward, Former Director, Missouri Division of Youth Services

Scott Taylor, Former Director Multnomah County Department of Community Justice 

Jane E. Tewksbury, Former Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Youth Services

Cherie Townsend, Former Executive Director, Texas Juvenile Justice Department

Russell Van Vleet, Former founder and executive director of The Utah Criminal Justice Center; Former Director of the Utah Division of Youth Corrections