In the United States, the mission of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention includes the development and implementation of prevention and intervention programs. While many of these initiatives include recreation, there remains no standard for recreation programs. The purpose of this study was to review the written authorities for each state to identify the minimum requirements for recreation programming in juvenile justice facilities. Among other discoveries, we found that across all states, there is not a shared definition of recreation, only 70% of states have daily mandatory minimums requirements, only 44% of states require youth be given time outside, and only 56% of states include justifications for denying youth access to recreation. Implications for professionals and researchers are discussed, as well as suggestions for further inquiry and the integration of recreation into the treatment process.
Recent national events have increased attention towards immigrant youth. Youth placed in juvenile justice facilities go through processes overseen by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and the Unaccompanied Children’s Program. While in placement youth are exposed to risk factors and face cultural barriers being in a new country. As publicity of the incarceration of immigrant youth increases, there is an emphatic need for researchers to examine the quality of care youth experience in placement facilities. One of the areas that has not been critically investigated is recreation programming in juvenile justice facilities. Recreation programs grounded in Positive Youth Development have proven to promote healthy development and offer immigrant youth opportunities to adapt to their new environment. Providing youth in juvenile justice facilities access to high quality recreation programming strengthens protective factors in youth to prepare them for adulthood, and reduces the likelihood of their committing an offense, thereby increasing public safety and saving taxpayer dollars. This paper is a first step to establish a clear understanding of the treatment of immigrant youth in detention. In this paper I discuss the results of a comprehensive examination of the minimum requirements for recreation programming in juvenile justice facilities. The results provide clear implications for immigrant youth as well as suggestions for further critical inquiry.
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