Juvenile Detainees

Juvenile Detainees

A study authorized by Congress and released in 1994 found that the annual admissions to juvenile correctional institutions reached 690,000. The facilities were classified as short-term including awaiting placement, reception or detention centers and long-term that included training schools and ranches. According to the report, juveniles spent an average of 32 weeks in long-term facilities in 1990. In 1997, 368 juveniles per 100,000 in the population were in custody, and in the same year juvenile residential facilities housed 105,790 delinquent juveniles. There is a high rate of recidivism in juvenile correctional facilities. Approximately forty percent of adolescents who appear in court are repeat offenders. Repeat offenders are more likely to commit serious crimes than first time offenders. (Grisso 1999 )

Studies have shown that up to twenty-three percent of incarcerated youth have serious health problems, one third had no regular source of health care and fifty percent had no follow up for their medical needs. In addition, adolescents who are incarcerated may be at higher risk for certain health problems. Sexually transmitted infections are more likely in teenage detainees than those teens in the general population. Detainee risks include earlier onset of sexual activity and an increased likelihood of drug abuse. For juvenile detainees, the median age of first sexual intercourse was thirteen years, the median number of sex partners was eight and sixty-three percent did not regularly use a condom. Up to fifteen percent of male adolescent detainees had one sexually transmitted infection in one study and about one third of male detainees had a history of or current sexually transmitted infection. In another study thirty-three percent of incarcerated adolescent females had positive tests for chlamydia or gonorrhea. (Howard Cornille Lyons et al. 1996)

There are few instances of HIV infection in adolescent detainees although at least sixty cases have ...