The High Cost of Youth Incarceration: How Prison Fails Our Children and Our Communities

Kaelyn Yu '29

In 2023, approximately 18 million households in the United States experienced food

insecurity. Of these, 6.5 million were families with children. For a 16-year-old, this is one of

the hardest moments of their lives, one where they feel unsafe, unstable, and are

desperate for a sense control. Standing in a grocery store’s aisle, the choice wasn’t

between right and wrong, but between starving or curing hopelessness. When metal doors

clang shut, the moment would seem like a simple sentence to them, but also, potentially,

the end of a future. This is one of tens of thousands of young people who are processed

through the juvenile justice system each year. This system is known to be built on providing

public safety and second chances for these children. Yet, a disturbingly fast-growing body

of evidence is showing a starkly different outcome; rather than protecting communities

and being able to “reintegrate” people into society, youth incarceration often functions as

a factory for future crime, creating a cycle of trauma and recidivism that is perpetuated

over and over in ways that are not only expensive to taxpayers, but also ones that

irreversibly destroy lives. This essay points out how the current model of societal change

fails at its purposes, fails its people, and fails to acknowledge the urgent need to shift

resources to several, more helpful and proven alternatives that could improve current

conditions.

The current model of youth incarceration in the United States continues to rely on

practices that are inherently counterproductive. Currently, a large portion of locked up

juveniles are in prison-like facilities where control and punishment are the main focus,

having not much difference in comparison to adult prisons. Common practices include the

use of handcuffs, solitary confinement, and other harsh disciplinary measures for

something as trivial as not going to community service. Many compare the conditions to be

similar to those of a real, adult-fitted prison. These methods, however, ignore core

principles of adolescent development and the importance of providing safe communities.

A system that claims to help juveniles should prioritize education over punishment, yet the

opposite pattern persists.

The term "cost" in youth incarceration encompasses both financial and human dimensions.

The financial costs of youth incarceration in America show constant misallocations of

public resources, which is problematic for taxpayers. Their investment in public safety is

not being used effectively. On average, it costs taxpayers $214,620 to incarcerate one child

each year. To put this into perspective, that is 1250% more than the average national cost

for educational services. We pay more to imprison children than to educate them. This

highlights a policy choice that prioritizes punishment over actual development. In fact,

several worse examples exist at the state level as well. In Wisconsin, the Department of

Corrections pushed to have every incarcerated youth cost $2300, which shows the high

costs that come with just one arrest.

This expensive public investment undermines public safety by fostering high recidivism

rates. Studies reveal that within two to three years of release, 70 to 80% of formerly

imprisoned youths are rearrested. This shows how the current system is not only more

expensive but also ineffective. Taxpayers are forced to repeatedly fund a system that

perpetuates negative behavior.

Beyond the financial costs, youth incarceration creates long-term psychological damage

to youths, fundamentally failing the young people it claims to rehabilitate. Research

confirms that rather than correcting behavior, the harsh environment in the prisons

actively retraumatizes youth and destroys their psychological maturity. Incarcerated young

people face higher risks of depression, suicidality, and long-term health problems, and

because being in prison disrupts access to education, it drastically reduces their ability to

graduate or have a good academic record, which limits chances of employment and a

general setup for the future.

Furthermore, this cycle of recidivism—with 70-80% of released youths rearrested—is the

inherent result of a system that punishes and fails to rehabilitate its residents. As

established, incarceration disrupts education and inflicts psychological trauma. Upon

release, these young people are returned to society with a criminal record that hinders

employment and an education that has been disrupted, stalled or abandoned. Having

been denied the tools to succeed or live a comfortable life, young offenders are left with no

legitimate choice but to return to crime, proving the current model is not just a failure but a

self-perpetuating engine of future offense.

Summarizing these points, from a financial and human perspective, youth incarceration is

inherently flawed when promising to improve and create a safe society for all. Taxpayerswaste money, and children, who were disadvantaged from the start, pay the price of

negligence.

The best solution is to fund and promote cheaper, more efficient alternatives. Instead of

funding incarceration, governments should provide counseling programs that improve and

address root problems that cause youth crime rates, educational support that doesn’t put

prisoners behind in society, but helps them integrate into society, and restorative practices

like community service that hold young people accountable by having them give back to

the community based on what they have done, which is a better alternative compared to

punishing.

We need to foster a system that cares and pushes society to be stronger, not one that

punishes children who simply didn’t know better.