A review including new data analysis, published Oct. 14 in Science, exposes the harm mass incarceration has on families and advocates for family-friendly criminal justice interventions.
Contact With Child Protective Services Common Among US Kids medscape.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medscape.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A new study of all live births and jail incarcerations in New York City from 2010-2016 has found that births exposed to paternal jail incarceration during gestation were associated with 58% to over 200% higher odds of adverse outcomes than unexposed births, including increased odds of late preterm birth, low birthweight, small for gestational age (SGA), and Neonatal Intensive
These closures come with $39.9 million in annual cost-savings. To date, the ministry has not indicated how they will reallocate these funds nor answered any questions about relocating youth from their communities and potential conflicts with current youth justice legislation.
In the same month, Ontario committed to redesigning the state guardianship system to better prepare youth aging out of care. Little has been said about what these two measures will mean for youth.
As a socio-legal scholar and a critical policy analyst who study carceral policy, we identify these decisions as a possible shift within the ministry to create more just outcomes for Ontario youth and their families. Yet transparency and strong commitments are needed. We call on the ministry to address concerns raised about the closures and to reallocate funds to an ethical reset of the state guardianship system.
March 1, 2021
Maria D. Fitzpatrick is a professor of economics and public policy in the College of Human Ecology and the director of the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs. In September 2020 she was named Cornell’s new associate vice provost for social sciences. In that role, she is helping to further the mission of the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation to advance and support Cornell research by promoting scholarship and collaborations throughout the broad landscape of the social sciences.
She also is continuing her own robust research program, focusing on child and family policy and more effective ways to pinpoint child abuse and maltreatment; the role of teachers in child protection; the economics of education; and how economics shapes the way people make life decisions.