Specters of the Privatized Punishment: Erosions of Civil Liberties in Juvenile Prisons

Source: www.borgenproject.org

By Kelly Chen

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As juvenile offenders have been increasingly incarcerated in private prisons in the United States, issues have emerged regarding the material and legal impacts of the new privatized settings. In similar vein, this Note considers the pressing issue of how infringement on the civil rights of juvenile offenders are troubling collateral consequences of private juvenile correctional and detention centers that primarily strive to meet certain business goals. By examining the historical trajectory of private juvenile facilities and detailing their longstanding precarious living conditions and institutional practices and analyzing the constitutionality of the privatized penal state, this Note argues that private juvenile prisons, as they operate today, should conclude. In favor of structural changes that instill principles of rehabilitative or restorative justice, this Note asserts that community-based, progressive models of juvenile imprisonment should become the new alternative.