Incarceration Sabotages Youth Academically, Education Reform Needed for Future Recidivism
- WULR Team
- May 7
- 4 min read
An analysis of the systemic educational inequalities within juvenile detention centers and the critical need for reform to improve academic outcomes and reduce recidivism.
Published May 7th, 2026
Written by Hiya Tanna
Across the nation, around 30,000 youth are held in Juvenile Detention Centers each year, but the academic situation in the classroom and in the JDCs is extremely different. According to the Urban Institute, children who are incarcerated do not get the same instruction time as their peers who are in the public system. They receive around 25 hours a week of education, which is about 8 fewer hours than are spent in the public system. The gap highlights extensive inequalities in educational inequalities, consistency, short supply of certified teachers, and fewer educational opportunities compared to what their peers are experiencing. Youth today are vocal about their mental health challenges, detention centers don’t have the needed support systems to fix these issues. Not having secure education combined with untreated mental health and having limited resources leads to students falling even more behind and cannot develop the needed critical thinking skills and decision making skills. Because of all of this, these educational gaps lead to decreased academic achievement, and there is an increased chance of involvement in the criminal justice system later in their lives. How can we create a system to help young people succeed when it is already failing to educate them?
The United States lacks an effective system for teaching youth in custody. The Education Commission of the States has three ways of controlling education services in JDCs. There is the statewide school district model, the state school model and the local school district model. Because of this, we can infer that there are different systems which vary by state, which can result in what you can access, the quality, and requirements. The required courses, quality of teacher, and graduation requirements are all based on geographical location. As mentioned in the Urban Institute, incarcerated youth receive less instructional hours than their peers who are in the public educational system. They lack proficiency in courses such as algebra and geometry. Less than a third of the youth in JDCs have access to credit recovery opportunities. Incarcerated youth fall behind their peers because they have disrupted transcripts which hurts the traditional educational pathways, leaving them academically disadvantaged for future pursuits, higher education.
One challenge in the JDCs is how education is structured to the youth and how it leaves a gap in their education. The Education Commission of the States argues municipal governments lack efficient funding for schooling in juvenile centers. Some of the responsibility goes to local school districts, some to the state education agencies and some to the educational departments. Because the fragmented systems are not organized, there tends to be gaps when aligning curricula, teacher qualifications and special education services. According to the Education Commission of the States, if a kid is going between facilities, or even going back to their hometown school, they face a loss of academic progress because the JDCs and the public school curriculum don’t align with state graduation requirements. Because of this, children are inevitably falling behind because of how our system is set up. Without having accountability and stable educational frameworks incarcerated youth are left navigating a system that is inferior to their peers. There are ongoing policy efforts addressing the issue. The Missouri House Bill 1449 discusses how they are going to implement procedures for educational services in the detention centers and have better supervision across facilities. In the Education Commission of the States, it talks about how there are coordinated plans established by the state so that youth can re-enter school smoothly. These bills acknowledge that the reason we are in this position is because there is no coordination among the government agencies. This lack of coordination between the government is the reason juvenile centers don’t have that many requirements for the quality of the curriculum, what a teacher's background entails, etc. This leads to loss of academic progress among the youth. Without having a stable educational pathway, students are left with figuring out an inferior educational system.
These challenges are compounded by the mental health challenges of what incarcerated youth face. Currently, there are ongoing efforts to address these issues. Research from the Frontiers in Psychology states youth have “conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)–but also internalizing (i.e., mood disorders, anxiety) problems, substance use disorders and personality disorders .” One solution to the educational and developmental gaps is enforcing these libraries within the juvenile centers.Having a library in the prisons is beneficial because inmates need to transform their life skills, gain educational resources and social integration opportunities. According to The Pivotal Role of Prison Libraries as an Information Resource for Resource Rehabilitation: An Integrative Review of Literature once the library is implemented, libraries can be incorporated into daily routines, which supports academic participation and personal growth. Research on the prison libraries demonstrates that access to libraries, tutoring, and personalized education show development, emotional regulation and fewer mishaps within the youth. These results show that having these educational resources can address the academic gaps and behavioral changes in JDCs. The Juvenile Facilities can provide these resources, but seldom do provide these resources. To prevent academic disruption and recidivism, juvenile systems can be more organized. Greater attention needs to be given on how mental health affects children, along with educational opportunities. Expanding access to libraries in detention centers can be shown as an effective way to reduce the academic disruptions and support recovery.
We need to make JDCs more reflective of traditional schooling so that youth can meet their academic and developmental needs. Many states do not have the proper resources in these centers, leaving these detained students far behind their peers. Whether mental health issues, learning environment or the need to create libraries for them, they are all tools to help reduce recidivism. However, with ongoing legislative reforms to establish better educational systems, we can create an effective way for incarcerated youth to reenter society and become successful.
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