Viewpoint: Jailing children in Florida is costly

If anyone needs more proof that Florida’s practice of incarcerating thousands of children is a truly bad idea, look no further than a new report that quantifies the real cost to taxpayers and concludes that cheaper, proven alternatives would lead to safer communities and better outcomes for young people and taxpayers alike.

According to the nonprofit Justice Policy Institute, confining a single child in our state costs Florida taxpayers about $152 a day – or $55,407 a year. Although Florida spends less per child than most other states, that still works out to more than $110 million for the roughly 2,000 in state custody.

If this vast expenditure were making us all safer and helping children get their lives back on track, one could argue that it’s worth the cost.

But here’s the rub: It’s not.

In fact, study after study points to the opposite conclusion: Incarcerating children makes them more, not less, likely to commit crimes in the future. It therefore makes us less safe, not more.

It’s not just the JPI making that point. The National Academy of Sciences last year released a comprehensive review of juvenile justice policy and reached the same conclusion. And the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice’s own Roadmap to Excellence report recognizes that removing children from home and confining them with other delinquent youths only leads to more crime.

Not only does the data show there is a better way, common sense does, too.

We know that children are still developing, and most will grow out of the behavior that got them into trouble. Incarceration, though, traumatizes children, exposes them to a higher risk of sexual assault and violence, influences their self-perception as being inherently bad, and can even help them learn criminal behavior from others.

What’s more, the direct cost to Florida’s annual budget is just one part of the fiscal story.

The JPI report – “Sticker Shock: Calculating the Full Price Tag for Youth Incarceration” – also tallies the long-term, hidden costs of states’ overreliance on juvenile incarceration.

The indirect costs were estimated at between $8 billion and $21 billion per year nationally. These take into account the cost of recidivism and future crimes committed; the loss of employment opportunities for incarcerated youths and the additional government benefits they will require as a result; and the loss of tax revenue because of their reduced earning potential.

These are very real costs that we all will bear. The good news is there is a better way.

Policymakers are beginning to understand that children are much more likely to improve their behavior if they are allowed to stay in their homes with their families. There, they can continue to go to school while being provided intensive and effective rehabilitative services at a fraction of the cost of incarceration.

This is a stark departure from the policies and practices of the past.

As the JPI report points out, incarceration diminishes children’s chances to complete their education, earn a good living, stay off government assistance and be productive members of their community.

Incarceration cannot be completely eliminated. But it should always be the last resort.

Florida has made progress in recent years. As it has across the country, juvenile crime has been steadily declining, and Florida has taken steps to reduce its overreliance on residential facilities. We need to move systematically away from exorbitantly expensive incarceration that harms children and has proven to be ineffective. This will save billions of dollars, and we’ll all be better served.

Tania Galloni is managing attorney of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Florida office in Miami.