The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has added a new and urgent justification for ending the harmful, ineffective and expensive practice of locking up youth who are in conflict with the law.
Youth in custodial settings are at great risk of exposure to a highly contagious virus. Probation personnel, facility staff, attorneys, youth and others enter and leave these facilities every day, increasing the risk of contagion.
Youth detention centers and prisons are notoriously unsanitary environments, and the young people confined in these settings have no means to employ the practices necessary to protect themselves.
There is no feasible way to implement “social distancing” as a means of limiting exposure without subjecting youth to prolonged