This guest post is from Madison Durner, Regent Law 3L:
According
to the Children’s
Bureau at the Administration for Children and Families, approximately 407,000
children were reported in foster care in 2020, and this number has
continued to rise in the last several years. In addition to the rising numbers
of youth in foster care, each year over 700,000 children in the United States
face adjudication within the juvenile justice system. The “foster care to prison
pipeline” is something that we cannot continue to ignore within the population.
These
government-funded programs are designed to help take our youth out of a
negative or dangerous home-life and provide them with the tools and resources to
be adequately cared for or reformed through rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is
meant to restore a person, or in this case a child, to lead a useful life. However,
by
the age of 17, over 50% of children that have been in foster care have had some
kind of connection or encounter with the juvenile legal system whether this be
an arrest, conviction or detention. The lack of resources within foster
care as an institution is prevalent and is creating a disproportionate number
of children that have an increased probability of being intertwined with the
justice system after being placed in foster care.
In addition
to children in foster care being more likely to commit crimes, both children
within the foster care and the juvenile justice systems are placed at a much
higher risk of human sex trafficking or violent victimization. These children
experience a various of risk factors that increase their vulnerability
including family dynamics, socioeconomic and psychological factors. When
children become in the custody of our governmental facilities, we should be
taking more than the necessary precautions to make sure they have livable
conditions, but we should be taking strides towards rehabilitation. These
children deserve to have highly skilled and trained individuals to analyze
their mental health needs, identify the signs and indicators of abuse or trafficking,
and provide educational resources to put them on the right path even after
their time at a facility has concluded.
Children
placed in the care of the state or the government in any capacity are not
likely to have come from a safe and loving environment that nourishes and
encourages positive emotions and behaviors. Their innocence continues to be
stripped away as they lose trust in all adults around them and turn to the
streets for comfort.
Our
children are the future. By neglecting their needs even after being presented
with the evidence that they are struggling in their home life, they are having
criminal tendencies, and their mental health is declining, we are failing them.
Family restoration requires us all as a community to help restore their future.
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