Essay about Critical Article Review

Submitted By michellell
Words: 1012
Pages: 5

Education in Youth Detention Facilities impact on Reentry
Michelle Korusek
Liberty University

Education in Youth Detention Facilities impact on Reentry Juvenile Detention Facilities are facilities that are utilized to house youth aged offenders. These facilities are used to more appropriately separate the 93,000 youth from the adult prison system (Rudell & Thomas, 2009). These detention facilities were created to punish, but at the same time rehabilitate the youth for the future reentry into society (Rudell & Thomas, 2009). Although these detention centers were created in each state to house youth there are still issues pertaining how to adequately address the education of these youth offenders while in the youth facilities.
Juvenile Detention Educational Programs According to the article, Academic Potential Among African American Adolescents in Juvenile Detention Centers: Implications for Reentry to School (Toldson, 2010), in 1920 it was established that a normal school environment was needed in youth detention facilities for adequate learning. However, since that time more regulations have been addressed pertaining to individual needs of the students including special education students, mental health issues, trauma and students with substance abuse. Another article by Gupta (2005) agrees with article that many of these detainees suffer from medical and psychiatric disorders; as well as, substance abuse issues.
All these issues according to Toldson, Woodson, Braithwaite, Holliday and De La Rosa (2010) have an impact on the success of education within the detention facilities. Within the juvenile justice system the percentage of African Americans’ youth is 30% which is double than their same representation in the general population (Toldson, 2009). Rudell and Thomas (2009) state similar trends that 43% of youth in detention facilities that received remedial education while at the youth detention facility did not return to their community school when released from the facility. Rudell and Thomas (2009) points out that another 16% of those same youth that were released back into the community enrolled, but dropped out of their educational facility within five months of reenrolling. The main issue is that drop-outs are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested than that of high school graduates (Rudell, 2009).
According to Painter (2008), most juvenile detention facilities’ educational programs are substandard compared to public education. These programs are the only choice that detainees have. Like Painter, Toldson (2010) agrees that when released many detainees are left with sever educational deficits and since the rate of African American detainees are higher than average the impact on that population becomes a cycle of arrests.
.Successful Transition into Public Educational System
In the study conducted and reported in the article, Academic Potential Among African American Adolescents in Juvenile Detention Centers: Implications for Reentry to School (Toldson, 2010) areas of concern as discussed before, depression, self-esteem, trauma and past delinquency, were documented and addressed. The article explains that if these factors are approached and supported that the potential for successful transition from the juvenile justice education system back to the public education system would be higher. Like Toldson, Rudell (2009) agrees that the successful transition back to public school does depend of variables that may be out of the youth’s hands. The community also must be willing to accept the incarcerated youth back into their public education system. Toldson (2010) states that family and community involvement also has an effect on the “academic potential of black youth detainees”. Other community resources and academic assistance outside of the facilities along with the juvenile detention facilities educational programs can help to promote academic potential. Gupta, Kelleher, Pajer, Stevens, and