Project Overview
This project seeks to address the special needs of the increasing number of girls involved with the juvenile justice system in Washington State, specifically those who are pregnant or parents.
Attorney Wendy Chen, a University of Washington J.D./M.P.A graduate, is providing project leadership for this work. A pro bono legal team from Foster Pepper PLLC, including attorneys Kelly Angell, Alice Ostdiek and Joanna Plichta, and Washington Appleseed legal fellow Claire McHugh are conducting research and working towards the development of a resource guide for the girls in the juvenile justice system, outlining their legal rights. Powerful Voices, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization working with girls in the juvenile justice system, is also providing project guidance.
The team is conducting research to:
- Produce an information pamphlet for teen mothers in the juvenile justice system in Washington State, outlining their legal rights and the services available to them.
- Produce a comprehensive resource guide for the juvenile justice professionals responsible for their welfare.
- As a systemic approach is necessary, identify appropriate avenues for advocacy around legislation directing the adoption of appropriate policies and procedures to ensure the best possible outcomes for these girls and their children.
The team drafted an op-ed piece on this issue, which appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in August 2007.
History of the Project
This project stemmed from a report completed by Ms. Chen, "Pregnant and Parenting Girls in Washington's Juvenile Justice System." After reviewing the situation in Washington state and some "best practices," she makes the following recommendations:
As one researcher stated, "the positive intergenerational impact of programs that provide intensive interventions for the mother-child pair cannot be underestimated. Not only will the effective delivery of developmentally sequenced mother-child services prevent young women from entering the justice system resulting due to the abuse or neglect of their own children, but these programs can also promote the neurological potential of the infant, protecting against future involvement in delinquency."[1]
It is important to conduct a standard comprehensive physical and mental health screening and assessment to every girl who enters the juvenile justice system. Without doing so, it is impossible to identify and appropriately serve all system-involved pregnant girls. As there already exists a standard Washington State Juvenile Court Risk Assessment that every court in the state uses, doing so is feasible.
For those girls whose offenses are not so serious as to warrant detention, courts should, at minimum, ensure that they are connected with appropriate family planning, prenatal physical and mental health care, parenting education, birthing, and post-partum counseling services available in the community, requiring their participation as part of their sentences, if necessary. For those girls whose offenses do require detention, more intensive intervention may be necessary.
Under current law, local detention centers are required to develop their own standards in order to receive state monies. At minimum, they should be specifically required to develop standards for working with pregnant girls and be held to that obligation. More appropriately, the State should issue its own recommended guidelines that comply with the National Commission on Correctional Health Care’s standards for working with pregnant girls.
The National Commission on Correctional Health Care offers two standards applicable to pregnant girls who are incarcerated. Standard Y-G-07 calls for:
- All aspects of the standard are addressed by written policy and defined procedures.
- Pregnant juveniles receive prenatal care that includes:
- Medical examinations;
- Laboratory and diagnostic tests; and
- Advice on appropriate levels of activity, safety precautions, and nutritional guidance and counseling.[2]
The Commission also recommends that pregnant juveniles receive educational programs that teach self-care and parenting skills, as well as appropriate post-partum mental health care.
Standard Y-G-10 calls for comprehensive family planning services equivalent to those to which a pregnant juvenile in the community would have access. Recommended services should counsel and assist a girl in carrying out her desire to keep her child, use adoption services, or terminate her pregnancy.[3]
While Echo Glen Children's Center appears to largely provide appropriate care and services to its pregnant inmates, its practices are unwritten and ad-hoc, and any change in management could jeopardize appropriate care. Further, Echo Glen has not implemented policies to help foster and maintain the mother-child relationship during the teen mother's detention. A mandatory visitation scheme similar to those in place in Colorado and New Jersey’s facilities should be implemented.
It is imperative for the State, through the Department of Social and Health Services and the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration, to institute written policies governing the care and services provided to pregnant and parenting girls in their care, as well as their children.
Services should not cease as soon as a girl is released from confinement. The State must continue to support the new mother during her transition back into her family and her community. It may also be important for the State to monitor the girl and her infant for many years in order to determine the long-term impact of services on their future development.
At each stage of system-involvement, one or more of the previously-discussed model programs may be appropriate interventions. The State should make a financial investment in these types of programs with available federal and state grant monies.
[1] Acoca, No Place to Hide, 114.
[2] National Commission on Correctional Health Care, Standards for Health Services in Juvenile Detention and Confinement Facilities (2004), Standard Y-G-07, 112-13.
[3] National Commission on Correctional Health Care, Standards for Health Services in Juvenile Detention and Confinement Facilities, Standard Y-G-10, 116.
