By: Phil Pierre

"You have the right to remain silent, everything you say can and will be used in the Court of Law. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one, one will be appointed on your behalf by the courts." The first interaction with jail for most begins with these words, then a series of hand cuff clicks, doors slamming, sirens, and "sally ports". One mistake can land anyone in this position. What can be a tumultuous situation for even the toughest people in society has proven to be fatal for the children in the care of the Department of Corrections.

According to Child Trends; Data Bank census of juvenile residential custody centers, "In 2013, 173 juveniles per 100,000 population (54,000 total) were in residential placements," While they also report that the number of juvenile inmates have fallen in the last 15 years, the Equal Justice Initiative reports that, "Some 10,000 children are housed in adult jails and prisons on any given day in America". These numbers are staggering when you realize that they will never fully recover from such an ordeal. These children tend to be the same inmates we see in adult prisons later in their lives. What's worse, is that some children find themselves in those adult prisons before they become adults.

The court system's comfort in sending our children to a prison environment is indicative of our society's confusion and ineptitude around rehabilitation and restorative justice. Furthermore, it proves that we would rather blame the person for their actions than address the inadequate resources given to schools to appropriately address children's social, emotional, and often psychiatric needs. According to the Department of Justice, "41% of children in the juvenile justice system have serious mental health problems." Conversations about alternative ways to mentor, rehabilitate, and reintegrate children need to occur in every kind of school; urban or rural, with every kind of family; affluent or poor. Funds also need to be allocated for researching alternative ways to care for at risk youth, and systems also need to be put in place for families to access the care needed before a manic episode, prior to that child finding themselves behind bars.

Mental healthcare is often unavailable until a child reaches a correctional setting. The stigma attached with one seeking mental healthcare deters a family from seeking out the services. In other cases, families are limited in their options for adequate school settings. Referrals from a variety of psychiatric professionals are usually required to enroll a child in a specialized school environment, a process that can be time consuming and extremely costly. By the time a child might be approved for such services they may already find themselves in prison. Isn't there something wrong when the largest provider of mental healthcare is the Department of Corrections?

For children not afflicted with mental illness we know that executive brain function isn't fully developed until the age of 25. Yet, we continue to incarcerate children and subject them to life altering traumatic experiences in prison environments. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, "Some 10,000 children are housed in adult jails and prisons on any given day in America. Children are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted in adult prisons than in juvenile facilities and face increased risk of suicide." I would certainly characterize this as a problem that requires immediate attention. Some would argue that child imprisonment is one way of teaching our children about the severe consequences of their actions. This notion begs the question, have we adequately measured the consequences of incarcerating our children? Are we truly opposed to finding a solution that is more beneficial to both the child and the society at large? "A report by the organization, "The Price of Prisons," states that the cost of incarcerating one inmate in Fiscal 2010 was $31,307 per year. "In states like Connecticut, Washington state, New York, it's anywhere from $50,000 to $60,000," he said. Can't these funds be used to find other measures that teach rather than degrade and dehumanize? In New York, which is among the states that spends more money to educate students spent $19,818 per pupil in 2013 according to the US Census Bureau. Isn't there a problem when we're more comfortable telling a child that we're willing to take the $40,000 financial hit and send them to prison, rather than educate them for the future we envisioned them living in? Isn't there also a problem when we're content with contributing to the creation of a new impoverished class of the country? We know that the vast majority of inmates across the US suffer from mental illness to begin with. While that doesn't serve as an excuse for the crimes they may have committed, it illuminates the issue of inadequate access to mental healthcare leading to a life behind bars.

One problem with prison is the lie we internalize when we say that, prisoners "pay their debt" to society and they are able to leave the facility and become productive citizens. In fact, prison doesn't end when the steel doors open, cuffs come off, and the clerk gives you $200 to get back home. Prison still isn't over when you get home and join your family again (for the lucky ones who have family to speak of). Prison continues for many of the formerly incarcerated because of the inability to secure gainful employment; the inability to own a bank account or start a business because banks won't lend to a "convict". What makes things worse, in the midst of all of these additional roadblocks we've set up for the formerly incarcerated, we complain about crime rates spiking. Why are funds set aside for studies on recidivism when we aren't willing to provide those who've been incarcerated with a real chance to get back on their feet. Until these questions are answered sufficiently, one can only conclude that by sentencing any child to prison we are conceding that the child represents an unparalleled level hopelessness.

We've all made mistakes that if committed in front of a police officer, we would have landed in jail. Think about the times you took something that didn't belong to you; the time you fought your arch nemesis on the playground at a nearby park or even consumed alcohol prior to the legal age. We've all made mistakes, the only difference is that you weren't caught by police. We shouldn't have the ability to deem a child irredeemable because they've been arrested. I suggest that we concentrate our energies on fixing a broken system built. Instead of remaining silent, we ought to exercise our right to be boisterous about the future of our children. We ought to expose this issue so both mental health and the criminal justice system are held accountable.