Punishment and Redemption: The Psychological Toll on Incarcerated Juveniles

By: Sophia Santigo, Chase Orser, Anelise Chen, and Anna Zink

About 25,000 juveniles are incarcerated in the U.S. every year. 70% of these juveniles will fall victim to a mental health condition caused by the conditions they are forced to endure. In a typical day, 75% of juveniles report instances of bullying, harassment, threats, and physical and sexual abuse. Yet few things are being done to prevent the extreme psychological trauma juveniles face in the justice system. 

For example, take the case of Harrison Shepherd. Shepherd was initially arrested at 16 for burglary and possession of methamphetamine and sentenced to a total of one year in prison. Nonetheless, that sentence was ultimately reduced and he ended up serving 9 months. After being released, Shepherd was convicted again in 2012 for possession of methamphetamine and sentenced to five months in prison, where he was released five days later. However, in 2013, Shepherd was convicted again and faced charges of burglary, auto theft, receiving stolen auto parts, resisting law enforcement, and robbery, for which he was sentenced to six years with a projected release date in 2018. In March 2013, he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the Indiana Department of Correction. In April 2015, he was transferred to the Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana where he entered “Clean Lifestyle is Freedom Forever”, a drug rehabilitation program. But in August 2015, Shepherd was transferred yet again to a different section of the prison, a section with no access to any recovery systems. 

On April 1, 2017, Harrison Henry Shepherd was found in his cell unresponsive, covered in blood, and seizing. Shepherd had allegedly been exposed to a lethal drug that had been illegally distributed into the prison. After exposure, he was said to be in distress for over an hour in his cell before receiving any form of medical attention. Even when Shepherd received some sort of medical help, there were still delays in his transfer from the prison to the hospital. With all these tactical errors, Shepard passed away the same day in the hospital. 

Arrests like Shepard’s loop young and easily corruptible children into the system. These arrests are specifically calculated to keep people in the system. When arrested at a young age, it is harder to stay away from the system, as there are numerous factors like friends, parole, criminal records, and much more, that lead ex-offenders to return. As Shepherd stated in an interview, once your name is in the system, the police in your area look at you whenever something bad happens because they see you as a bad influence on others. After constantly being watched by the police, formerly incarcerated juveniles are more prone to being reinstated in juvenile detention centers or prisons. Alongside this, the mental trauma from being in the center even just once, changes the mindset of young kids and alters their future decisions, considering that children’s minds are heavily influenced by the environment they grow up in. 

However, some reforms are being made in the juvenile criminal justice system. Various programs work to help incarcerated youth, focusing on their mental health and their reintegration back into society. Louisiana specifically has an organization named FFLIC, or the Friends and Family of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Youth.  FFLIC works to “create a better life for all of Louisiana’s youth, especially those in or targeted by the juvenile justice system.”  FFLIC is a pivotal organization that is working to transform the heinous conditions juveniles are in. FFLIC also assists in the reduction of recidivism, or the tendency of a criminal to re-offend after they are released. Groups like FFLIC are changing the juvenile justice system for the better, providing support needed for a vulnerable population within a society.

This piece is part of an on-going series from professor Betsy Weiss’s class, “Punishment and Redemption in the Prison Industrial Complex,” which is taught at Tulane University in the Young Public Scholars Pre-College Program.