30.2 % of America’s Youth Arrested Before Their 23rd Birthday (25% of us are state wards & special needs people)

Almost a third of American youth are arrested by the time they are 23. About the same statistic as the percentage of American children that are reported to child protection by the time they turn 18.

Add this to the fact that American youth (as young as 11) are routinely charged as adults (25% nationally) and that cities around the nation arrest extremely high percentages of their minority populations (in 2001 Hennepin County – Minneapolis MN) arrested 44% of it’s adult Black Men – no duplicate arrests/58% of those men were rearrested for a second crime within two years making Minneapolis the Jail & Prison capital of the world.

Many states have funded their prison and jail systems at far greater rates of increase than their schools, daycare, or health systems, any of which could reduce the stresses driving the extreme growth in crime and courts.

A pathological lack of empathy is driving parts of our political body and ensures that generation after generation of dysfunctional families will continue to maintain the statistical truth that the U.S. has five percent of the world’s population and twenty five percent of the world’s prison population. This scorched earth capitalism is now converting jails, prisons, and juvenile detention centers to money making operations with the attendant problems of brutal and illegal conditions (that have sent some judges to prison).

Add that to the mental health issues addressed in the thirty years of study conducted by Dr. Bruce Perry & his conclusion that 25% of Americans will be special needs people by the end of this generation, & the Federal Reserve Boards study and argument for investing in children begins to look like a pretty good return on capital (not to mention it’s the right thing to do).

As a long time volunteer CASA guardian ad Litem, the saddest reality is watching perfectly beautiful little children grow into juveniles and adults unable to manage the traumas they have suffered and go on to lead perfectly awful lives.

Not addressing the mental health issues of trauma and torture can only continue to make our streets dangerous, schools fail, and quality of life a shadow of what it has been.

Support day care, educators, social workers and early child initiatives. Make mental health programs a mainstay of the juvenile justice system. It is a proven improvement over the punishment model. www.invisiblechildren.org