Compared with offenders confined in juvenile facilities, juveniles in adult prison are eight times more likely to commit suicide, five times more likely to be sexually assaulted, and almost twice as likely to be attacked with a weapon by inmates and beaten by staff. ^[1]

In the US 48,000 youth are locked up on any given day ^[2]

In Washington African American youth are 5x more likely than white youth to be incarcerated. ^[3]

In Washington it can cost $88K/year to imprison a child, but only $12K/year for public education ^[4]

Washington youth whose cases are sent to adult court (auto-decline) are more likely to reoffend then those cases that remain in juvenile court ^[5]

In Washington, about 1:4 of those sentenced to 10-20 years or life and 1:3 of those sentenced to 20-40 or life were 25 or younger at the time of their sentencing ^[6]

Washington State prison population that has expanded by 337% since 1980 ^[7]

Washington State was given a failing grade in response to COVID-19 in Jails and Prisons ^[8]

A February 2021 study found Americans overwhelmingly (78%) favor a youth justice system that focuses on prevention and rehabilitation not incarceration ^[9]

Sources

[1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1541204002250875

[2] https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/youth2019.html

[3] https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/youth2019.html

[4] https://www.nokidsinprison.org/explore/washington/?section=race-interactive

[5] https://www.wsipp.wa.gov/ReportFile/1544/Wsipp_The-Effectiveness-of-Declining-Juvenile-Court-Jurisdiction-of-Youth_Report.pdf

[6] https://www.aclu-wa.org/docs/about-time-how-long-and-life-sentences-fuel-mass-incarceration-washington-state

[7] https://www.aclu-wa.org/docs/about-time-how-long-and-life-sentences-fuel-mass-incarceration-washington-state

[8] https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/failing_grades.html

[9] https://backend.nokidsinprison.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Youth-First-National-Poll-Memo-Feb-2021-Final-4.pdf