Juvenile confinement exacerbates adversity burden: A neurobiological impetus for decarceration

Natalia Orendain; Adriana Galván; Emma Smith; Elizabeth S Barnert; Paul J Chung

doi:10.3389/fnins.2022.1004335

Juvenile confinement exacerbates adversity burden: A neurobiological impetus for decarceration

Front Neurosci. 2022 Sep 30:16:1004335. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.1004335. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Natalia Orendain^{1

2}, Adriana Galván³, Emma Smith³, Elizabeth S Barnert⁴, Paul J Chung^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
² David Geffen School of Medicine, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
³ Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
⁵ Department of Health Systems Science, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, Pasadena, CA, United States.

Abstract

Every year, about 700,000 youth arrests occur in the United States, creating significant neurodevelopmental strain; this is especially concerning as most of these youth have early life adversity exposures that may alter brain development. Males, Black, and Latinx youth, and individuals from low socioeconomic status households have disproportionate contact with the juvenile justice system (JJS). Youth confined in the JJS are frequently exposed to threat and abuse, in addition to separation from family and other social supports. Youths' educational and exploratory behaviors and activities are substantially restricted, and youth are confined to sterile environments that often lack sufficient enrichment resources. In addition to their demonstrated ineffectiveness in preventing future delinquent behaviors, high recidivism rates, and costs, juvenile conditions of confinement likely exacerbate youths' adversity burden and neurodevelopmentally harm youth during the temporally sensitive window of adolescence. Developmentally appropriate methods that capitalize on adolescents' unique rehabilitative potential should be instated through interventions that minimize confinement. Such changes would require joint advocacy from the pediatric and behavioral health care communities. "The distinct nature of children, their initial dependent, and developmental state, their unique human potential as well as their vulnerability, all demand the need for more, rather than less, legal and other protection from all forms of violence (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2007)."

Keywords: adolescence; adversity; incarceration; juvenile justice; neurodevelopment; stress; trauma.