Understanding Juvenile Reentry: Examining Past Trauma, Perceived Support and Youth Opinions of Service Needs and Utilization

Background and Purpose

Youth housed in detention facilities often exhibit complex and concerning risk factors for continued offending. They are likely to have suffered violence in the past, have dysfunctional family relationships, live in violent neighborhoods, face mental health and substance abuse problems, and have had little academic success (Moore, Indig & Haysom, 2014). Upon returning to their homes and communities after months or years of detention, their educational and employment outcomes are bleak. Research has indicated that up to 85 percent of youth in detention will reoffend within 5 years and fewer than 20 percent earn a high school diploma or equivalent educational certification (Bullis &Yovanoff, 2002; Osgood, Foster & Courtney, 2010; Todis et al, 2001; Trulson, Marquat, Mullings & Caeti, 2005). This paper presents findings from a state and university collaborative project exploring youth experiences of trauma, perceived support from family and friends and expectations for community reentry in a largely rural Midwestern state.

Methods

This study aimed to increase understanding of the reentry experience for incarcerated youth, from a youth perspective. Youth have been the focus of many research projects; however, data have been typically collected from adults about youth, rather than from youth themselves. In recent years, youth voices have become increasingly valued as youth are considered to be able to reliably communicate their own experiences and perspectives (Schelbe, et al, 2015). Researchers met individually with a total of 75 youth who were within 60 days of being released and conducted in-depth interviews to capture youth perceptions of the challenges they expected to encounter upon reentry and their plans to cope with those struggles.Youth were also asked to indicate if they have experienced challenges in their past, such as stress, depression, abuse, traumatic injuries, etc., as well as the level of financial, emotional, material and practical support they perceived from family and friends.

Results

Youth were asked about 13 different types of trauma, including physical and sexual abuse. On average, youth reported experiencing 9 different forms of trauma prior to their incarceration. While youth expressed strong concern about personal drug/alcohol use, mental health needs and budgeting/paying bills following release, the majority of respondents did not plan to utilize services to address those needs.

Conclusion

Understanding the perceptions and past trauma of incarcerated youth is important as research has shown that offender perceptions and expectations about returning home often correlate with actual reentry experiences (Mathur & Clark, 2014). While youth experienced a great level of trauma, had little perceived support from family and friends and expressed concern about their own substance abuse and mental health, few planned to utilize services. Further research can explore strategies to increase youths' willingness to utilize services in order to improve outcomes following reentry.