User:Dori Cottle/sandbox

For my Wikipedia article that I will be constructing, I have chosen to focus on the topic of 'Education for the Incarcerated Youth' in the United States, North America. The article will focus on the legal right to education for all young people in America, including those in juvenile detention centres, discussing the current quality of education and what changes need to be made in the education system by the government, school district boards and staff within the detention centres themselves. There is a need for a wider range of data on the teaching in juvenile detention centres which does not allow much room for progress within these systems as the different experiences across the US are not truly reflected, nor are the positive or negative elements of the education that is delivered. This relates to the question of whether it is fair to begin to compare the level of education for the incarcerated youth to the education received by the average American public high schooler or whether education for young offenders should be considered totally separately due to the unique individual needs of students as well as the complicated nature of their learning environment. The distractions present in juvenile detention centres must be addressed when speaking from an academic perspective. For example, it is uncommon for students to experience any real quiet time to allow for concentration unless in solitary confinement, in which education is unlikely to be a top priority and they are surrounded by armed guards. Furthermore, the social aspect of school is incredibly skewed for such students as there is a lack of academic routine (e.g. irregular homework and lessons), as well as often not being able to interact with many other students as they would in a normal school setting. It is important to address the low expectation of staff imposed onto students within these facilities, based off recorded pre-existing negative experiences in education and a mentality of punishment for their actions. The issue of youth education in detention centres is particularly relevant to youth of colour as these systematic low expectations are prevalent in other areas of society, which may contribute to academic failure or disinterest. Additionally, the article will highlight the needs of young people in juvenile detention centres that are learning English or have English as a second language, as well as what measures should be put in place in order to support those with learning and behavioural disabilities or are suffering from trauma. In order to facilitate students in detention centres, there must be a focus on specialised training for teachers. It will be important to analyse how useful general participation in education while at a juvenile detention centre is in preventing young people from reoffending in the future. Lastly, the issue of funding towards education in general by the United States, as well as funding specific to juvenile detention centres will be investigated, with links to the need for resources such as books and technology.

Annotated Bibliography

Below are five sources that are relevant to the issue of education for the incarcerated youth, specific to the US education system. Although the articles cover different areas of the subject, many present overlapping challenges within juvenile detention facilities such as matters of teacher training, access to resources, systemic problems, disabilities, and the general cooperation and balance, or lack of, between security and crime prevention and providing the basic rights of children.

1.Koyama. P. R, (2012), ‘The Status of Education in Pre-Trial Juvenile Detention’, Journal of Correctional Education (1974), Vol. 63, No.1, p35-68, available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26507621?casa_token=kMY1_AEGXqoAAAAA%3ALCQVbFvoDANOQquREwiKsfH5fNK6NtN_zFaFiVVlYLyiuWdPHVNuj029yJWShdTKq00Cm5HUJyBo71HDSLrGdZoS9p6-4DhLFVKQemO2GJWu5L0Pd4g&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

The main claim of this course is that the quality of pre-trial education in US juvenile detention centres is poor as it does not accommodate the diverse needs of students due to lack of appropriate teacher knowledge and training, classroom preparation and access to resources. Koyama emphasises that this is the biggest challenge within detention centres, raising the issue of the lack of accurate and useful studies and reports on juvenile detention education, especially pre-trial, as a result of poor participation. The difference between juvenile detention centres and youth commitment facilities is layed out, with juvenile detention centres being highlighted as much more uncertain and temporary environments, as opposed to youth commitment centres, which serve more permanent roles in the lives of young students, making regular education arrangements easier to facilitate. Koyama provides an explanation as to why consistent, good quality education is more of an obstacle for juvenile detention centres. The fact that the centres are built with the purpose of holding youths for temporary periods of time, targeted towards security concerns, leaves education needs unattended as it is not the main priority and can be hard to balance with ongoing legal commitments. Additionally, Koyama introduces NCLB (No Child Left Behind), IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) as well as LEAs (Local Education Agencies). The journal presents a survey looking into the relationship between education and delinquency. However, a weakness of the survey is that participants were not required to answer all questions which lead to a decrease in responses. Furthermore, the survey was not directed at young offenders but members of staff which could provide inadequate responses to questions based on the quality and struggles of education within juvenile detention centres.

2.Leone. P.E., Ph.D., .Zaremba. B. A, Chapin. M.S, Iseli. C, (1995) ‘Understanding the Overrepresentation of Youths with Disabilities in Juvenile Detention’, District of Columbia Law Review 3 D.C.C, available at: https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/udclr3&div=23&g_sent=1&casa_token=VaOatPpawjUAAAAA:iEhbq6IMt4uaG40kpOcilr47v71CmI2-DodMsa-Rh5TgqjzPtJkNK1q4HGPobfug6hVF-LEr&collection=journals

The main claim of this article is that there is an overrepresentation of youths with disabling conditions in juvenile detention systems and other correction programmes. This source is useful as it analyses issues external to juvenile detention facilities, that affect who is admitted into them and how they are subsequently treated as a result of various stigmas and approaches about how certain members of society behave. The article introduces the idea of how behaviour associated with disabling conditions may be associated with the unnecessary detention of youths as well as the concept of differential treatment within correctional facilities and the Miranda Rights. A weakness within this source is that it is more focused on issues that take place outside of detention centres, while this is important, it would be useful to see more of how this impacts the way education is delivered to students within juvenile detention classrooms.

3.McCluskey. M, (2017), ‘What If This Were Your Kid?’, The Atlantic, available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/juvenile-solitary-confinement/548933/

The main claim of the source is that juvenile detention centres can further set back children in education and that their experiences in juvenile detention have a significant impact on whether they return to school or drop out. Evidence to support the claim is provided in the form of interviews with detainees in an Onondaga facility and the inspection of their educational materials, as well as statistics from juvenile justice organisations (Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall, California and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention). These statistics look at the number of youths enrolled, their race/ ethnicity and other factors such as age and level of education. In addition, this article also covers the issue of how students with disabilities (physical/behavioural/learning) are treated in solitary confinement and analyses how the reduction of education in solitary confinement produced better results. In addition, the Correctional Education Association is introduced, which is an organisation instrumental in strengthening the relationship between juvenile detention centres and their educators.

4.Mills. G, (2010), ‘Education in Juvenile Detention Centres in Connecticut: A Glance at the System’, PMC, 61(3), p 223-261, available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4569007/

The main claim of the source is that the standard of teaching for students in juvenile detention needs to be improved, and should be achieved by the means of ensuring members of staff are specialised in teaching students in special circumstances, giving students an incentive to succeed and providing ways of getting past systematic obstacles such as attitudes towards the progress of students and social and cultural barriers. The evidence that is provided for these points is provided in the form of a detailed report, providing a summary on the findings of a University of Yale study focused on the Connecticut Judicial Branch. The report looks into the classroom environment, focusing on access to resources, the average behaviour across juvenile detention classrooms, lesson structure, staffing, teacher training and continuity monitoring. The article introduces the concept of “culture shock” within the context of teaching methods and classroom environments that staff experience when transitioning into the learning environment of detention centres. This issue is particularly common as a result of juvenile detention education being held to the same standard as that of public schools. The fact that the source is state specific to Connecticut makes it less useful as it could be argued that looking at a state with a higher juvenile crime rate and more diversity would provide a broader range of results that may be more reflective of issues within the education system.

5.Rapanut. K, Linehan. P, Szymanowska. G, Ford. B, Collesi. K, (2020), ‘Patchwork education in juvenile centres often falls short’, Kids Imprisoned, News21, available at: https://kidsimprisoned.news21.com/education-juvenile-detention/

The main claim presented in this source is that insufficient attention is being given towards education in juvenile detention centres due to inconsistent policies and a lack of data, concealing the quality of teaching. Much of this is enabled by and continues to enable the belief that young offenders are bound to fail anyway and therefore it is not worth investing in their right to education. The article mentions the concept of ‘double punishment’, which is the additional consequence of loss of access to opportunities by the means of an education that detained youths face. Evidence to support this claim is given in the form of an account from an individual who experienced education in juvenile detention as well as from those responsible for overseeing the education given. This is useful as it provides perspectives from both ends, which must both undergo change in order to improve the delivery of education. Furthermore, examples of research/reports are provided on key issues such as class availability, support for youths with disabilities as well as the management of non-native English speakers in the classroom. A weakness of this article is that it covers a particularly broad range of issues, featuring a lot of dialogue from multiple individuals and is not focused on a specific area or time frame.