The cable network A&E has been running a popular series for six seasons called “Scared Straight.” It purports to show a forceful way of handling juvenile offenders by taking them to a correctional facility and having inmates intimidate them with threats of what will happen if the kids end up in prison. And of course, the next episode features a sobbing or sobered delinquent declaring he or she will straighten up.

It’s a feel-good for the audience. Such a simple way to straighten out these young miscreants. The only problem, it’s Hollywood nonsense, as Del Elliott, the director of the program on Problem Behavior and Positive Youth Development and the founding director of The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence in the Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) at the University of Colorado recently pointed out.

One and a half million young people are arrested each year in the United States, 89 percent of those are for non-violent crimes.  Many of these young people arrested, even those non-violent offenders, receive custodial or residential sentences.  In other words, they are taken away from their families, schools, friends, and community and placed in a locked facility.

Think about it, in dollars and cents.  Each year, the United States spends $10,500 per child on education. We spend on average, eight times that amount on each youth incarcerated, or approximately $88,000 per child. What does this say about our priorities? Incarceration is more important than education?

I love documentaries. Just ask Netflix. My “Things Diane Might Like” section routinely populates with new ones. In the past six months, I’ve watched two outstanding, thought-provoking, and emotional documentaries. Blackfish about the death of Seaworld Trainer, Dawn Brancheau and the negative effects of keeping killer whales in captivity. And, Kids for Cash about a scandal in Luzerne County, PA where Judge Mark Chiavarella and Judge Michael Conahan received payments for placing young people in a privatized juvenile detention facility. 

Like Blackfish, Kids for Cash outlines the negative impact of placing young people outside of their families and natural ecologies. While I see parallels between these two documentaries, I also see a striking difference in the general response to the films.

In tight economic times, many states and agencies are forced to examine their budgets and prioritize funding in ways that maximize the effect of each dollar. Others seek reform after concluding that years of service and millions of dollars have not achieved the desired outcomes. Regardless of their path to reform, states and counties across the country are beginning to examine services offered through their juvenile justice systems, and those examinations are increasingly leading to the conclusion that incarceration of juveniles is not cost effective – or effective at all.