Glossary

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Incarcerated  
Time spent punished for a crime by serving time in a secure facility. 

System-Impacted 
A person who is legally, economically, or familially negatively affected by the incarceration of a close relative. System-impacted also includes people arrested and/or convicted without incarceration. 

Systems-Involved Youth  
Young people involved in the juvenile legal system, child welfare system, or both systems (i.e., crossover youth), sometimes with specific emphasis on youth who are incarcerated, in foster care, or youth exiting or having exited these systems. This term is interchangeable with “multisystem-involved youth.” In 2010, the Center for Juvenile Reform at Georgetown University developed the Crossover Youth Practice Model to address the unique needs of youth at risk of or fluctuating between the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.  

GENERAL TERMINOLOGY 

Mass Incarceration 
Whether called mass incarceration, mass imprisonment, the prison boom, the carceral state, or hyper-incarceration, this phenomenon refers to the current American experiment in incarceration, which is defined by comparatively and historically extreme rates of imprisonment. (The US incarcerates 737 people per 100,00; Russia incarcerates 615 per 100,00; China incarcerates 118 per 100,00, and Louisiana incarcerates 1,052 per 100,000.) 

Jail 
Also known as “detention facilities,” jails are operated by a county (parishes in Louisiana), city government, or private company. A jail is a secure facility that holds three main types of people: 

1. People who have been arrested and are held pending a plea agreement, trial, or sentencing. 

2. People who have been convicted of a misdemeanor criminal offense and are serving a sentence of (typically) less than one year. 

3. People who have been sentenced to prison and are about to be transferred to another facility. In Louisiana, the Department of Corrections has contracted with local parish jails to house people convicted of felonies and sentenced to less than 13 years. 

In the state of Louisiana, the limits for spending time in jail without actually being charged with a crime are 45 days for a misdemeanor, 60 days for a felony, and 120 days for any offense that would result in automatic life in prison or death, which under Louisiana law is reserved for murder, aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping. After those time limits, an accused person is supposed to be released without bail to await the results of their case outside a jail cell unless prosecutors can show “just cause” for the delay. But no sole agency is responsible for tracking defendants once they are booked. 

Prison 
Compared to jails, prisons are longer-term facilities owned by a state, the federal government or a private company.. Prisons typically hold those convicted of felonies and persons with sentences of more than a year; however, the sentence length may vary by state. 

Federal Prison  
Federal prison facilities operate under the jurisdiction of a federal government, as opposed to state prisons, parish/county prisons and private prisons. Federal prisons are used for incarcerating those who violate federal law. 

State Prison  
State correctional authorities run state prison facilities. Incarcerated people housed in these facilities are under the legal jurisdiction of the state government and generally serve a term of more than one year. 

  • Angola Prison, Angola, LA
    The Louisiana State Penitentiary is a maximum-security adult prison farm operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is named "Angola" after the former plantation site it occupies and the country of Angola, where many enslaved inhabitants originated before arriving in Louisiana. Angola is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States. 

    On October 18th, 2022, eight young people were transferred from the youth detention center in Bridge City to Angola Prison. 

Private Prison 
Also known as a "for-profit prison," a private prison is a place in which individuals are physically confined or incarcerated by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with governments that commit incarcerated people who pay a per diem or monthly rate for each incarcerated person in the facility or for each place available, whether occupied or not. Private prisons are not held to the same standards and are regulated differently than state or federal facilities. On January 25, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order to stop the United States Department of Justice from renewing further contracts with private prisons.  

Prison Industrial Complex 
The prison industrial complex is a term that attributes the rapid expansion of the US incarcerated population to business profit. Private prisons supply goods and services to government prison agencies for profit. The most common agents in this industry are: corporations that contract cheap prison labor, construction companies, surveillance technology vendors, companies that operate prison food services and medical facilities, prison guard unions, private probation companies, lawyers, and the lobby groups that represent these entities. 

SELECTED JUVENILE LEGAL SYSTEM CONCEPTS 

Juvenile  
A person at or below the upper age of juvenile court jurisdiction in a particular state, which is 18 in Louisiana. Informally, this term is interchangeable with "minor," "adolescent," "child," "young people," and "youth."  

Juvenile Justice / Juvenile Legal System  
In Louisiana, the criminal law system for crimes committed by minors, persons under 18 years old. Using "legal" in place of justice demands that we consider the implications of the system and ask the question – where is justice? For the Newcomb Art Museum exhibition, "Juvenile Justice Crisis" is used because this is what the system is currently called; however, we invite you to consider a shift in language that centers the question above. 

Juvenile Court 
A court having jurisdiction over cases involving children who committed an offense when under a specific age, usually 18. Juvenile courts (sometimes called Family Courts) generally preside over delinquency and dependency proceedings. It is separate from the court system for adults. The Juvenile Court of the Parish of Orleans was created in 1908. 

Juvenile Delinquency 
The act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the statutory age of majority. This term is interchangeable with "juvenile offending." 

Adjudication 
Youth are not "convicted"; they are "adjudicated." At the adjudication hearing, the judge hears the witnesses' testimony and makes a decision. The youth does not have the right to a trial by jury. The judge may review evidence relevant to the case. After the hearing, the judge will determine if a young person should be adjudicated delinquent or FINS based on the evidence presented. 

FINS or Families in Need of Service 
FINS is a prevention program dedicated to the intervention of young people who are not attending school for a prolonged period of time, exhibit "ungovernable behavior," which is defined as parents/guardians who no longer have significant influence over their children or a young person who has run away from home. These services also apply to young people in possession or consumption of intoxicating substances, and when caretakers fail to attend meetings regarding if their child has behavior issues in school. 

Status Offense  
A nondelinquent/noncriminal offense that is illegal for underage persons but not for adults, such as: 

  • Curfew violation - Violation of an ordinance forbidding persons below a certain age from being in public places during set hours. 

  • Incorrigible, ungovernable - Being beyond the control of parents, guardians, or custodians. 

  • Running Away - Leaving the custody and home of parents or guardians without permission and failing to return within a reasonable length of time. 

  • Truancy - Violation of a compulsory school attendance law. 

  • Underage drinking - Possession, use, or consumption of alcohol by a minor. 

Travis Hill School, New Orleans, LA 
In August 2016, BreakFree Education, an organization that focuses on improving educational services for adjudicated youth, opened a new school inside the Orleans Juvenile Justice Center, then known as the Youth Study Center. One year later, BreakFree applied to open a second campus inside the New Orleans adult jail, known as the Orleans Justice Center.  

Students at Travis Hill School are also supported upon community reentry through the Travis Hill Rises program. Upon students' return to the community, support is offered to allow for a successful transition home and begin the work of reducing the recidivism rate. 

Juvenile Detention Center 
A short-term jail facility for people under the age of majority who are: arrested for delinquent acts, awaiting pretrial, adjudicated and waiting for placement, or any pending short-term secure placement. Young people go through a separate court system, the "juvenile court," which sentences or commits youth under 18 to a specific program or facility. This term is interchangeable with "youth detention center," "juvenile detention," "juvenile jail," "juvenile hall," or more colloquially as "juvie" and " juvy." It is sometimes referred to as "observation home" or "remand home."  

Detention centers are throughout the state in the following parishes: Orleans, Jefferson, the Florida Parishes (encompassing Livingston, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington parishes all at one facility), Terrebonne, Ouachita, Calcasieu, Caddo, Sabine, Bossier, Red River, and East Baton Rouge. Find more information below on the centers referenced in this document. 

  • Orleans Juvenile Justice Intervention Center
    Opened on Tuesday, May 3, 2016, the Orleans Juvenile Justice Intervention Centeron Milton Avenue is a large campus that brings the Juvenile Court and related operations altogether in one location. The Juvenile Justice Intervention Center serves as the juvenile detention center for Orleans Parish, providing pretrial detention to youths charged with committing a "delinquent" offense. 

  • Ware Youth Center, Coushatta, LA 
    Located in a rural area of Red River Parish on Highway 71, the Ware Youth Center opened at a time when Louisiana was earning a reputation for operating one of the country's worst juvenile systems. The site serves as a detention center for children arrested and awaiting disposition of their cases, and also includes group homes for children with substance abuse and behavioral problems. Ware qualifies as a secure and nonsecure facility,, due to the additional services it provides through its group home programming.  

    October 30, 2022, TThe New York Times published a major investigation detailing Ware’s history of abuse and lack of governmental oversight. The article cites 64 suicide attempts in 2019 and 2020, and 91 escape attempts since the beginning of 2019. It also explains how guards were not reported or held accountable following allegations of sexual and physical abuse, in multiple instances. 

Super-Predator Myth 
In 1994 Louisiana incarcerated over 2,000 young people. By 1995, a young criminology professor at Princeton University, John J. DiIulio Jr., coined the term “super-predator” for a November 1995 cover story in The Weekly Standard, a brand-new magazine of conservative political opinion. The theory posited "urban" youth would commit violent crimes without remorse, and many of these narratives were racially coded with a specific focus on Black children. By the year 2000, the term was used nationally by journalists in 281 articles, including the 1996 Newsweek headline, “‘Superpredators’ Arrive: Should we cage the new breed of vicious kids?” As a result of such tough-on-crime thinking, between 1992 and 1999, most US states passed legislation that contributed toward the dismantling of transfer restrictions for youth, lowering the minimum age for adult prosecution, and increasing the usage of excessively punitive measures for adjudicated youth. Later in 2001, DiIulio admitted that his theory had been mistaken and was untrue, saying ''I'm sorry for any unintended consequences” and he later worked toward reform. He and other criminologists also began citing other reasons for the 1990s rise in youth crime.  

Community-Based Program 
A program providing treatment, services, and/or supervision to youth under the juvenile court's jurisdiction as part of a diversion program or a youth's probation conditions. The program is "community-based" because it provides services in the young person's community rather than in detention or a secure confinement setting. 

Conditions of Confinement 
This phrase refers to the living conditions in juvenile detention and secure confinement facilities. It includes the physical conditions of the facility (cleanliness, temperature, light, plumbing, etc.), safety in the facility (the absence or prevalence of assaults, sexual abuse, and harmful practices such as the use of excessive force or isolation), and access to health care, education, programming, and visitation. 

Placement 
Placement generally refers to an out-of-home placement. Judges deciding what disposition best suits a particular young person who has been found “delinquent” have a range of options, the most severe of which is placement because it removes a child from their home and community. The term “placement” is used both for out-of-home placements designed to be therapeutic and for secure confinement facilities. 

Non Secure Placement 
Non-Secure Care, more commonly called Residential Placement, is a less restrictive means of providing custody for young people needing treatment and out-of-home placement but deemed not to pose a significant threat to public safety by the court. This also includes placement within a group home.  

Secure Placement   
Secure care, the deep end of the juvenile legal system, is reserved for young people deemed by the court system to be a risk to public safety and/or not amenable to treatment in a less restrictive setting. 

Secure Facilities in Louisiana: 

  • Bridge City Center for Youth, Jefferson Parish, LA  
    The Bridge City Correctional Center for Youth (BCCY) (formerly the Louisiana Training Institute - Bridge City) is a secure correctional facility for male court-identified youth who the court has adjudicated. Bridge City Correctional Center for Youth provides for the custody, care, and treatment of adjudicated youth through the enforcement of the laws and implementation of programs designed to ensure the safety of the public, staff, and young people and their reintegration into society. 

    Following a wave of escapes, in July 2022 Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards announced that the state would transfer young people housed at BCCY to Angola, as a short-term solution. Youth advocates and community stakeholders continue to fight against this decision and the human rights violations it represents. 

  • Swanson Center for Youth, Monroe, LA  
    In 1902, legislation authorized the State Penitentiary’s Board of Control to establish an institution for white youth aged 7 – 18. This led to the 1904 Legislative Act 173 that created the State Reform School (also called the Louisiana Training Institute – LTI) for white male juveniles in Monroe. However, funds were not appropriated for the new institution until the 1906 legislative session.  

  • Acadiana Center for Youth at St. Martinville, Bunkie, LA 
    Located in a rural area of Avoyelles Parish along Highway 71, the Acadiana Center for Youth at St. Martinville (ACY) opened in March 2019.. ACY was built to be a state-of-the-art secure therapeutic treatment center for youth—and designed to be a “transitional treatment unit” for “youth who demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to discontinue violent and aggressive acts,” said Office of Juvenile Justice spokeswoman Beth Touchet-Morgan. 

    ACY houses up to 72 young people requiring intensive treatment in a therapeutic, secure environment. Despite using the “Missouri Model” (see entry under Policies) as a programmatic blueprint for ACY, violence and misuse of power by leadership and staff has been reported. A major investigation published by NBC News in March 2022 cited that young people were being held in solitary confinement without access to education or treatment services. 

    In response, House Bill 756 was passed in Summer 2022 stating, “No juvenile in the custody of the office of juvenile justice shall be placed in any form of solitary confinement for any reason other than a temporary response to behavior that poses a serious and immediate threat of physical harm to the juvenile or others.” 

  • Jetson Center for Youth, Baker, LA  
    The Jetson Center for Youth is a former juvenile facility located just north of Baton Rouge. In 1900, the Louisiana Colored Teachers Association began advocating for a space due to the lack of facilities for Black children housed in adult prisons. In1948 the Louisiana legislature established the State Industrial School for Colored Youth. In 1956 this facility began housing both boys and girls. Following racial integration, in 1969 the name was changed to the Louisiana Training Institute - East Baton Rouge (LTI). 

    Before Jetson closed in 2014, the facility faced criticism and scrutiny amid burgeoning efforts to reform the state’s juvenile justice system in the early 2000s. The center finally closed on January 26, 2014. It would go on to house adult female persons displaced from the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW) in 2016, following historic flooding to the St. Gabriel region and its buildings.  

  • Tallulah Juvenile Prison, Tallulah, LA  
    The Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth was a private prison that opened in Louisiana in 1994. This detention center was located in a town of 8,000 people in the Delta region of Louisiana. The facility had a capacity for 620 inmates and was used to house system-impacted youth with the most severe offenses. Despite the high need for care, a management company with no experience was hired to run the facility. Within weeks of its opening, a federal judge placed the Tallulah prison under an emergency order due to rampant violence and incompetent management.   

Delinquency Proceeding 
A hearing in juvenile court to determine whether a young person is accused of committing a "delinquent" act, in fact, did it, and if so, what consequences should be imposed. Delinquency proceedings are adversarial and are similar in many ways to criminal proceedings. During the first stage of the proceedings, the adjudication hearing, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a "delinquent" act occurred and that the accused young person committed the act; the youth has the right to an attorney, the right to present evidence and cross-examine witnesses against them, and several other procedural rights. Suppose a young person is "adjudicated delinquent." In that case, the second stage of the delinquency proceeding is a disposition hearing in which the judge determines what treatment, services, and consequences serve the best interests of the youth and the community. 

Diversion 
This term refers to procedures and programs designed to meet the needs of certain youth while channeling them away from the formal juvenile court process. States have created various ways for first-time offenders, non-violent offenders, and youth whose delinquent behavior stems from mental health or substance abuse needs to be diverted from the juvenile legal system and into community-based programs. These diversion programs provide treatment and services and hold youth accountable for their actions without burdening them with a juvenile record and the stigma of being labeled "delinquent." 

School-to-Prison Pipeline 
This phrase generally refers to school discipline, attendance, and safety policies that act as gateways for youth to enter the juvenile and criminal legal systems. See also "Zero Tolerance." 

Zero Tolerance 
School discipline policies mandate harsh punishments such as suspension and expulsion and, in many instances, referral to law enforcement for specific rule violations. Zero tolerance policies have been widely criticized for removing youth from classrooms and routing students into the juvenile justice system for behavioral problems that, in the past, were adequately managed by the school system. Historically, these policies have disproportionately impacted youth of color.  

SELECTED POLICIES 

Juvenile Justice Reform Act (Act 1225) 
The state adopted reform legislation in 2003, known as Act 1225, on the heels of highly publicized violence within youth detention facilities and litigation by the US Department of Justice that found conditions of confinement for some youth in the system unconstitutional. Modeled after Missouri’s system that emphasizes rehabilitation and community-based programs rather than detention for troubled youth, Louisiana’s program was dubbed LAMOD – or the Louisiana Model. 

Missouri Model 
The state of Missouri has created a juvenile justice system that has proved so successful over the last thirty years it’s known as the “Missouri Miracle.” A number of practices combine to make Missouri’s system unique: It’s primarily made up of small facilities, generally designed for between ten and thirty youths, and located at sites throughout the state that keep young people close to their own homes. These facilities don’t look like jails with traditional cells; there are only eight isolation rooms in the entire state, which are seldom used and only for emergencies. They feature a highly trained and educated staff working in teams with small groups of youths. Youths are treated with respect and dignity. Instead of more traditional correctional approaches, the system uses a rehabilitative and therapeutic model that teaches young people to make positive, lasting changes in their behavior.  

Solan’s Law 
Passed by the Louisiana legislature in August 2019, House Bill 158, also known as Solan’s Law, requires screening before youth are detained and allows for alternatives to detention for young people. The bill was named in memory of 13-year-old Solan Peterson, who committed suicide while in custody at Ware Youth Center in February 2019, two days after Jordan Bachman committed suicide while in custody at the same facility. 

SELECTED CRIMINAL COURT TERMS 

Criminal Justice System 
The criminal justice system encompasses a network directly involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those suspected or convicted of criminal offenses. It includes police and other branches of law enforcement, attorneys (prosecutors and defense attorneys), judges, courts, government agencies, and parole and probation officers. 

Crime 
A crime is an action or omission that constitutes an offense by the legal system that the state may prosecute and is punishable by law. 

Punishment 
Punishment is the infliction or imposition of a penalty as deterrence, retribution, rehabilitation, and incapacitation. 

Prosecutor 
A prosecutor is a lawyer or official, such as a district attorney or a US attorney, who initiates and pursues criminal charges against a person, including during plea bargaining or trial.[Text Wrapping Break] 

Overcharging 
Overcharging refers to a prosecutorial practice that involves charging a person with a higher offense or “tacking on” additional charges that the prosecutor knows they cannot prove. This is used to put the prosecutor in a better plea-bargaining position. Overcharging gives leverage to prosecutors to get individuals to accept plea-bargain deals. 

Plea Bargain 
A plea or sentence bargain is an agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant where the defendant agrees to plead guilty rather than go to trial to obtain a more lenient sentence and/or to be convicted of a less severe charge. A very high percentage of individuals (95%) go to prison through plea deals. 

Infraction  
In general, infractions are the least serious type of crime. Typically, a police officer will write a ticket, and hand it to the person. The person then must pay a fine. Infractions usually involve little to no time in court (but in Louisiana, it may imply jail time) and include things like traffic tickets, jaywalking, and some minor drug possession charges in some states. However, if infractions remain unaddressed or unpaid, the law typically provides for an increasing range of fines and potential penalties. In Louisiana, the courts operate from the money made from these fines and fees.
 

Misdemeanor 
Misdemeanors are more serious than infractions. They are usually defined as a crime that is punishable by up to a year of jail time. Sometimes that jail time is served in a local county jail instead of a high-security prison. Other states define a misdemeanor as a crime that is not a felony or an infraction. Prosecutors generally have a great degree of flexibility in deciding what crimes to charge, how to punish them, and what kinds of plea bargains to negotiate.
 

Felony 
Felonies are the most serious type of crime. They are usually defined by the fact that they are punishable by prison sentences of more than one year. Since the punishment can be so severe, courtroom procedure must be strictly observed in felony cases so that the defendants’ rights stay protected. If a minor is charged with committing a felony when age 15 through 17, then their case may or must be transferred to adult court. Felony conviction results in the loss of voting/employment rights.
 

Probation/Supervised Release 
In criminal law, probation is a period of supervision over a convicted person, ordered by the court instead of serving time in prison or in addition to the time served and upon release. If probation or supervised release is violated an individual may go back to prison.
 

Parole 
Parole is the conditional release of an incarcerated person before their sentence is fully completed. Paroled people are supervised by a public official, usually called a “parole officer.” If paroled people violate the conditions of their release, then they may be returned to prison. The federal system does not have parole.
 

Reentry 
Reentry is a process by which incarcerated people have been released from institutional confinement and return to the community.
 

Recidivism 
Recidivism relates to people who return to prison, to a previous condition or mode of behavior, particularly criminal behavior. Recidivism rates for formerly incarcerated people are impacted by many factors.