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Suspect held after woman set on fire in NY subway car dies; Trump threatens to take back Panama Canal over 'ridiculous' fees; A year of growth for juvenile diversion programs in SD; The ups and downs of combating rural grocery deserts in ND; Report: AZ one of eight Western states that could improve conservation policies.

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Congress passes a last-minute budget stopgap. Trump's second-term tariffs could harm farmers, and future budget cuts could reduce much-needed federal programs.

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Rural folks could soon be shut out of loans for natural disasters if Project 2025 has its way, Taos, New Mexico weighs options for its housing shortage, and the top states providing America's Christmas trees revealed.

Report: Wrong Place for Bay State Kids is Behind Bars

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Tuesday, October 25, 2016   

BOSTON – Massachusetts is up to speed in following many of the recommendations set forth in a new report that recommends closing youth prisons in New England and the nation. The research from the Annie E. Casey Foundation pulls together evidence of the failings of youth-correctional facilities and recommends they all be closed.

Naoka Carey, the executive director of the advocacy group, Massachusetts Citizens for Juvenile Justice, said the Bay State started heading in this direction after discovering abuses at local youth prisons, more than three decades ago.

"Hundreds of kids in large prison-like facilities; and I think the report does a good job in highlighting that Massachusetts is one of the states that lead in moving away from that model back in the '70s," she said.

During the 1970s, the report notes the state closed eight youth prisons that held about 600 juveniles. According to the report, violent and abusive conditions were clearly documented in the Bay State after 1990 but reforms seem to be working since none has been documented since 2000.

Casey Foundation president and CEO Patrick McCarthy notes there is an enormous financial toll for youth prisons. While costs vary state-to-state, states pay on average about $90,000 a year for every youth in a juvenile facility.

"The money that we are wasting now on these incredibly expensive as well as ineffective institutions, we've got to reinvest that money in things that work," he said. "We don't have any magic solutions for juvenile crime but we have many programs that have evidence of success that we need to invest our dollars in."

The report recommends a Four-R strategy: Reduce the pipeline of children into youth facilities, reform the corrections culture that wrongly assumes locking up children improves safety, replace youth prisons with rehabilitative services, and reinvest in evidence-based solutions.


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