Albuquerque Journal editorial
Much has been made of how prisons double as institutions of higher learning for criminals, churning out graduates with master’s degrees in larceny and Ph.Ds in violence. That’s why New Mexico’s juvenile justice system is set up so youths sentenced before their 18th birthday don’t automatically share cells with 40-something hardened felons named Bubba.
That same rationale has to apply to the state’s younger juvenile delinquents - 14-year-old first-timers don’t need to bunk with 20-year-olds. But that’s an increasing possibility as more and more of the state’s “juvenile” offenders are, in fact, adults.
According to the Children, Youth and Families Department, 60 percent of offenders serving sentences in its facilities are 18 or older, and almost 28 percent are 19 or older. Only 50 of the state’s 277 incarcerated youths are ages 14 to 16. CYFD Secretary Dorian Dodson says judges have told her they send older juvenile offenders into the youth system “because we’re the last best hope before they (offenders) go into the adult system.”
One of the reasons the juvenile-corrections inmate population is aging could be CYFD’s emphasis on rehabilitating the youngest offenders in community settings. Debra Pritchard, facilities director for the state’s juvenile justice system, says, “CYFD has done a lot of work with programs so kids out there committing delinquent acts have a lot of chances before they come into our facilities.” The kids who are locked up really do need to be, she says.
But they certainly don’t need an honors course in surviving the recreation yard. As CYFD continues to implement the Missouri model, which focuses more on rehabilitation and less on punishment, it needs to ensure its hardest cases are in a secure environment while its youngest are in a safe one. And to do that, the Legislature needs to make sure the resources are available.
Copyright 2008 Albuquerque Journal