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Contributed commentary on the call for a juvenile justice center by Dave Whipple, LCSW, Clarksville Counseling Center:
While I can empathize with Judge Shelton’s response to the recent shooting at a football game, I am left feeling that his anger and push towards incarceration solutions is not one that will actually solve the problem. Having a juvenile detention center in Clarksville would not have stopped the crime that was committed. It would only have allowed the juveniles to be placed earlier in custody, which appears to be the main lament in his opinion piece. It appears the primary frustration for the judge is that it is difficult to find a place to put juveniles in jail. It is frustrating that as a community leader his anger stops there, instead of asking why the other facilities were crowded/overcrowded so a potentially violent juvenile could not be placed in one of them. Or possibly expressing outrage that a juvenile would get to such a place in their life that they felt the need to carry a firearm and discharge it around a large crowd of people.
Often the response on Facebook and elsewhere to juvenile crimes like these is “Lock them up in adult jail if there isn’t space” and “If you want to do adult crimes, you should do adult time.” These are not adults. They are youth whose brains will not be fully formed for at least seven more years. The last development of which will be the executive functioning center that controls the decision-making that leads to the main reasons teenagers get in trouble. Teenagers are stereotypically more moody, aggressive, irritable and impulsive. They make decisions ranging from poor to catastrophic. While temporary incarceration may be necessary for the most violent of offenses, it is not a solution to reducing adolescent acting out or crime. This is not an excuse for their behavior, but an explanation for why we cannot assume that jailing juveniles will reduce their potential acting out or criminal activity. In fact, juvenile incarceration is more likely to result in increased recidivism and increased experiences with the adult legal system.
I have been a mental health therapist for children, adolescents and adults for almost 15 years. I can say anecdotally and by review of research that incarcerating adolescents does nothing to decrease these types of decisions. It merely directs juveniles on a path that significantly increases their chances of engaging the legal system as adults. Being incarcerated removes adolescents from their potential positive social supports, causes them to fall behind or get further behind in school, and results in potential traumatic experiences from jail staff and other incarcerated peers. The numbers also bear that minorities and lower income juveniles are disproportionately affected by juvenile incarceration, further widening the disparities that minorities already experience both inside and outside of the US legal system.
The solutions to these issues are much more societal than a new detention center. Clarksville is woefully lacking in investment in adolescent mental health treatment. Those of us that provide mental health therapy to teenagers are often overbooked and cannot keep up with demand. Insurance and self pay rates can be a significant detriment to accessing services because we do not have the safety nets in place for teenagers to seek and receive treatment with a licensed professional. Clarksville is also lacking in significant mentoring and social supports for youth and families of disadvantaged teenagers. The lament in these situations is often towards the parent, but with no discussion on how hard it is as a single parent working one or more jobs to provide financially for their children, let alone provide constant supervision. We have to increase social supports for struggling families and youth. That’s where the money and outrage should be directed. Not towards wanting to build another detention center that has to keep full as many beds as their census allows to operate or generate profit. If a center like this is built in Clarksville, it will not be used just for violent offenders. If beds are open, they will be used for other reasons as judges, like retired Judge Shelton, see fit.
I cannot even begin to imagine the panic and fear that children and parents experienced during the shooting this past week. While I have lost teenage patients to gun violence, I have thankfully not had my own child in an actual situation like those at the football game experienced. It makes sense that many are angry and outraged. I just ask that in that outrage we focus our energy, efforts, and money on solutions that will actually work to reduce the problem rather than increasing juvenile incarceration rates to feed an already overcrowded US prison system.
Dave Whipple