(Facts checked)
In 2018 Prison Policy reported that on any given day around 53,000 juveniles are locked
up in the United States. That’s about five times more prisoners than
are doing time in the whole of Belgium at any age, and actually a bigger number than
the adult prison populations in the majority of countries. The U.S. locks up more young offenders than
any other nation. Most of these people will go to what in the
U.S. are called detention centers, but some might go to long-term secure facilities, others
to adult prisons and jails and others to residential treatment centers. If you’ve taken an interest in prison TV
shows or have been locked up yourself, you’ll know that violence is common among young imprisoned
offenders. Prison guards have also been said to have
crossed the line time and again. Let’s now take a look at some of the worst
places. We just talked about the USA, and we’ll
get around to this country, but it’s not only there that young offenders will be in
for a rough time. Let’s look at the UK, a country that used
to be home to young offenders institutions known as Borstals. If you’ve seen the utterly grim 1979 movie
“Scum” you’d know that these places were feared. Back then the authorities took a hardline
on offending kids, and Borstals were notorious for fighting among offenders and also rampant
bullying. The rough treatment by the authorities soon
became outdated, but we might ask what replaced these places? According to the Independent newspaper in
2017 what did replace them and what the UK had then was a “staggering rise in violence.” According to that report, violence, self-harm
and drug use has gone through the roof. It said in 11 months there were 26,000 inmate-on-inmate
assaults and 6,844 assaults on staff in just England and Wales. That year a report by the HM Inspectorate
of Prisons said some kids aged 12-18 were in their cells 22-24 hours a day, sometimes
just because of staff shortages. 40 percent of those kids said they felt unsafe
and many were suffering from depression. What everyone seems to agree on is that reform
is needed and needed quickly. But what about the worst place? One notorious place is called Aylesbury young
offender institution, but that is only for people aged 18-21. The BBC cited a report in 2019 which said
some of those youngsters are “some of the most disruptive and challenging young men
in the prison system.” It’s understaffed, violence is rife, illegal
substances are everywhere and assaults on guards are up. The same has happened at a place called Parc
Prison's juvenile unit and there everyone is aged under 18. The BBC reported that many offenders dare
not leave their cells. It also said that three out of every five
young “lads” felt intimidated by staff and a third of the offenders said they felt
in danger each day. Again, staff shortages and lack of funds were
to blame. In fact, you can read some British media that
will tell you that youth prisons in the UK are worse than adult prisons in terms of violence. One young offender said this in an interview
about how his days sometimes go, “So they gonna come and smack you up, so you got to
smack them down before they put you down. You’re fighting to survive so you don’t
get wiped out. If you die, you die. That’s how it goes.” It’s perhaps a big indictment of youth prisons
in the UK that one prison inspector said a place called Brinsford young offender institution
was the worst prison he had visited in the UK, and he meant including adult prisons. Reformers have asked that this dangerous and
squalid center be shut down. Apparently, the level of violence might not
be as high here, but many inmates only get 45 minutes to an hour a day outside of their
cells in a day. Those cells have been called by some reformers
unfit for human habitation. This might be why there has been a very high
number of inmates self-harming there. In 2018, one critic said this about Youth
Prisons in England and Wales in relation to the spike in violence and self-harm. “When numbers of children in prison were
sky-rocketing, the same narratives were pushed out about children being complex and troublesome. The plain truth is that children respond to
appalling living conditions and lack of sustained, expert care. It’s time for these institutions to be closed. They cannot be saved.” Over in Hong Kong and in one of its youth
detention centers it’s another story. Apparently there it’s the guards that mete
out the worst violence with some young offenders in interviews said the guards liked to play
“Chicken wing” and “Chinese Kale.” The first means being told to bow and then
guards beating the back of a prisoner with their elbows, and the second is getting the
same beating but in the most sensitive region of the body for a man. One former inmate of the Lai Chi Rehabilitation
Centre said guards would just beat them for nothing. He said it was sometimes worse than violence,
too, with guards at times doing their best to humiliate the prisoners. This might mean being forced to eat human
feces or drink urine, being told no toilet breaks, or being rushed out of the shower
after 20 seconds still covered in soap. They wanted to break the kids’ spirit, said
the former prisoner. A Hong Kong newspaper wrote about this, saying,
“Officers in juvenile prisons tend to use tougher, more violent and humiliating measures
to treat the prisoners.” Because of this and because it seems kids
cannot or dare not complain, in 2017 The United Nations Committee report on the “Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment” stated
that this needs to be investigated. It seems here the system itself is more to
blame for the violence and depravity, not kids fighting among themselves. Now let’s have a look at the USA. With so many youngsters behind bars in that
country and with so many gangs, you’d think the places where the young do their time are
not so pleasant. This is what someone said about a place called
Walnut Grove. “A picture of such horror as should be unrealized
anywhere in the civilized world.” Those are strong words, and Mother Jones wrote
a few years back that boys as young as 13 there run “a gauntlet of physical and sexual
assaults, and psychological abuse including long-term solitary confinement.” A federal judge even called the place “a
cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts.” It’s been closed since 2016, but we thought
we should give it a mention just because what people said about it. It seems it might have been the very worst
place you could find yourself locked up as a young offender. Before it was closed it had the worst record
of sexual abuse in the USA for a youth prison, while guards were said to routinely beat kids,
sell drugs, and occasionally spectate at inmate “gladiator” fights they put on. If you complained, you might find yourself
either being beaten or doing a long stretch in solitary. Most kids weren’t even in for violent offenses,
either. To make it worse, after investigating Walnut
Grove, the FBI found state officials had been making illegal deals with the private contractors
that built the place. The Marshall Project wrote that in the U.S.
there are 80 such youth prisons, and said there is one thing you need to know about
them and that is “They’re harsh, dangerous and isolated.” In that case it might be hard to pick out
the very worst, and we could say it would be hard to beat Walnut Grove in terms of terror. Still, we found numerous reports in recent
years that said New York’s Rikers Island is one place where young offenders have faced
cruelty. Investigations talked about “abuse of adolescents
and the mentally ill”, while a standout case was the beating to death of an 18-year
old inmate back in 2008. Worst still, it’s said the two inmates that
beat him to death were part of something called “The Program.” An investigation revealed that this was a
“secret society run by correctional officers at Rikers Island to extort and beat other
inmates.” In 2012 another investigation revealed violence
was still used by guards with impunity. Did things change? Well, in 2018 the New York Times wrote that
solitary confinement for anyone under the age of 22 was banned, but a way around that
was found when some teenagers were just moved to another facility where they could still
face isolation. Its particularly bad because reports state
that young prisoners are more likely to self-harm or take their own lives while in solitary
confinement. The story of Kalief Browder, a young man that
took his own life there in 2015, is now well-known. Then there’s the Lincoln Hills youth facility
in Irma, Wisconsin, one of the biggest youth prisons in the USA. Several investigations have taken place after
what the media called “allegations of abuse, neglect and excessive use of force.” One investigation said pepper spray was used
regularly on youth prisoners and so were isolation tactics. We read one report that this place might be
closing, but it seems it’s still there. We should say that guards have described many
youth detention centers as chaos and in many youth facilities such as Lincoln Hills, they
have been seriously injured. One guard said in a TV interview in 2019 that
every second of the job you are in danger. He talked about 16 hour shifts back to back,
with guards under constant and immense stress. He said that Lincoln Hills was underfunded
and the young inmates that end up there were the “worst of the worst” and seen as cases
that couldn’t be helped. While a judge ruled that young inmates were
subjected to abuse and their civil rights were taken away from them, this 20-year veteran
of Lincoln Hills said he never saw such abuse. He also said he knew incidents had happened,
but added that they were isolated. He might be right, but you only need to look
at the recent scandals in such youth facilities in Texas and Florida to realize some awful
things go on. Four staff members at Gainesville State School
in Texas in 2017 were charged with sexual abuse of young inmates, and in Florida where
girls were detained a similar thing happened the same year. According to one researcher, youths in juvenile
detention facilities are at more risk from such predatory abuse than adults are in adult
prisons. That research tells us that while in adult
prisons being green, new to the prison, presents many dangers, as does gang violence, in youth
prisons mistreatment by guards is much more of a problem. Some reports in the U.S. suggest that the
facilities we have mentioned are not just “bad apples” on an otherwise healthy tree. You can look up any number of youth facilities
and find allegations of pervasive abuse and subsequent investigations. You can also find guards talking about intense
pressure, long work hours, the constant threat of violence, understaffing and underfunding. Perhaps what has been created is a perfect
storm, a vicious cycle of violence that impacts both inmates and guards. What the USA is trying to figure out, or what
must be figured out is how to stop this cycle of violence. Like in the UK, many campaigners have said
because of almost constant violence and civil rights abuses such facilities need to be closed
down. There needs to be an alternative. We should say that all over the U.S. there
have been campaigns against youth prisons, with some reports stating that community treatment
programs have been more effective. There is some evidence that someone sent to
a youth prison instead of an alternative community program is more likely to commit another offense
when released. We found some programs in Ohio, Michigan,
and New York City, that have embraced this. Instead of sending young offenders to rural
prisons far from home, these community programs have sometimes been adopted. It seems with some success. But we’d like to know what you think should
happen to young offenders and if you think youth prison could be improved. We’d especially like to hear your thoughts
if you have been locked up in one of these places or have been a guard or staff member
there. Tell us in the comments. Also, be sure to check out our other video
Teenage Death Row Prisoner Who Survived His Own Execution. Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t
forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time.
