Boys to Men

[April 23rd, 2003] In their quest to save money, state lawmakers have proposed sending juvenile offenders to state prisons once they hit 18.

Moving all 200 young offenders into the adult system would result in about $2 million in up-front savings. But, as with many of the budget cuts, there could be hell to pay down the road.

"They will be sex toys," says Mary Botkin, a labor lobbyist whose union, AFSCME, represents state corrections officers, including 100 whose jobs would be lost under the plan. She says prison guards try to protect young inmates when they're sent over but can't be everywhere all the time. "It doesn't take long for these kids to learn that the best way to protect themselves is to get into solitary confinement." To do that, Botkin says, many have taken to attacking guards. Their weapon of choice: a sock loaded with either a padlock or gravel. "That gets them straight into isolation," she says.

Department of Corrections officials say Botkin
is overstating the problem but don't deny that the
transition would be difficult.

Currently kids who commit a crime before they turn 18 are under the custody of the Oregon Youth Authority. Unlike most other states, Oregon does not automatically turn these young offenders over to the adult system. Instead, cooperative offenders can remain in one of four juvenile prisons, such as MacLaren in Woodburn, until they are 25. After that they are transferred into the adult system.

The difference between spending time in the juvenile system, where the goal is reform, and in the penitentiary, where the focus is on order, is huge. So is the cost: $62 a night per prisoner in the adult system, versus $139 at MacLaren.

But state corrections director Benjamin deHaan says lawmakers may not save as much as they think. He says state prisons are not prepared to handle 200 kids. "They have different needs, they are scared," he says, "and they act it out by being meaner." As a result, he says the state would have to set up
separate programs, and possibly separate housing,
for the kids.

OYA currently oversees 1,058 inmates whose ages range from 12 to 25. Agency director Karen Brazeau
says almost half come from homes where a parent was convicted of a crime, more than a third have been
sexually abused, and a majority have been diagnosed with mental illness.

"There is a lot of literature about what happens to young offenders in adult prisons," she says, "and it is
all bad."

The influx of young inmates into the adult system would come at a time when prisons face dramatic cuts. Prison education programs, along with drug and alcohol treatment, are on the block. "Instead of making people better before they are released," says deHaan, "with these changes we could be making them worse."