Original articleDeaths in juvenile justice residential facilities
Section snippets
Data
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) of the U.S. Department of Justice sponsors two censuses of all public and private juvenile justice facilities in the United States: The Juvenile Residential Facilities Census (JRFC) and the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP). The criteria for inclusion in these censuses are that the facilities house young persons under the age of 21 years who have been charged with or adjudicated for an offense and are housed in
Death rates
There were a total of 62 deaths in the 2-year time period covered by the 2000 and 2002 JRFC (Table 1). The leading cause of death was suicide, followed by accidents, illnesses, homicides and other causes. There were no deaths from AIDS, homicide by another resident, or injury suffered before placement.
On an average day, 106,336 young people were assigned beds in juvenile justice residential facilities. Without addressing the issue of the number of days at risk in juvenile justice facilities,
Discussion
The risk of death for young people in juvenile justice facilities is about 8% higher than the death rate for the general population aged 15 to 19 years once rates are adjusted for the number of days of risk exposure. This adjustment is critical because people in juvenile justice facilities do not conform to the typical 365 days of exposure used in calculating general population risks. In absolute terms, it is impossible to discern what the true meaning of the difference in the rates between the
Acknowledgment
This work was supported in part by funding from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC.
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2019, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent PsychiatryCitation Excerpt :Suicide prevention programs in adult corrections that are appropriate for this vulnerable transition-aged population also are warranted. Consistent with prior research,5-7,38,41 the vast majority of incarcerated youth suicide deaths occurred by hanging, strangulation, or suffocation using bedsheets or clothing attached to different anchoring devices, such as air vents, bedposts, and window frames in youths’ cells. This raises important questions about the need for uniform safety standards that focus on suicide prevention in correctional facilities.
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2019, Academic PediatricsCitation Excerpt :The observed relationship between child incarceration and subsequent adult depressive symptoms and suicidality is striking, although not surprising. Suicide is the leading cause of death for youths in confinement.26,27 Rates of self-injurious and suicidal behaviors in juvenile justice populations are high, as are mental health conditions such as depression and substance use disorder, which independently potentiate the risk of suicidal behaviors.10