THIRTEEN:
Criminal legal systems are some of the largest providers of physical and mental health care in the United States yet scholars, health professionals, and system-impacted individuals have continuously pointed out the lack of dignified, client-centered sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care received within these settings. The juvenile legal system (also referred to as the juvenile justice system) is tasked with providing those services for young people ages 12–18 when in the custody of the state. A 2006 study by Gallagher and Dobrin found that, while juvenile detention centers partially meet some of the minimum standards for the provision of healthcare services suggested by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (2004), services were only provided on an ad hoc basis and, for some portions of the population rather than systematic access for all individuals within this system. The study also found geographic and racial differences in quality and scope of services for those in the legal system. Lastly, while there are mandates that require access to SRH care in correctional settings, these mandates do not apply to the significant number of youth who are under the gaze of a punitive system but supervised in the community, therefore leaving many youth underserved. Discrepancies in quality SRH care for adolescents in the juvenile legal system are especially alarming when examining the paucity of effective SRH care services for a particularly invisibilized and underserved group in the juvenile legal system: system impacted Black girls ages 12–18. The past 20 years have seen lower relative decreases in girls’ rates of arrests for a variety of offenses, including status offenses and violent crimes.
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Berezin, M. N., Javdani, S., and Godfrey, E. (2022) Predictors of sexual and reproductive health among girls involved in the juvenile legal system: the influence of resources, race, and ethnicity. Children and Youth Services Review, 136: 106426.
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Gallagher, C. A. and Dobrin, A. (2007) Can juvenile justice detention facilities meet the call of the American Academy of Pediatrics and National Commission on Correctional Health Care? A national analysis of current practices. Pediatrics, 119(4): e991–e1001.
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Hayes, C. M., Sufrin, C., and Perritt, J. B. (2020) Reproductive justice disrupted: Mass incarceration as a driver of reproductive oppression. American Journal of Public Health, 110(S1): S21–S24.
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Ketteringham, E. S., Cremer, S., and Becker, C. (2016) Healthy mothers, healthy babies: a reproductive justice response to the “womb-to-foster-care pipeline”. CUNY Law Review, 20: 77.
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National Commission on Correctional Health Care (2004) Standards for Health Services in Juvenile Detention and Confinement Facilities. National Commission on Correctional Health Care.
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Rose, R.E. and Javdani, S. (2023 Gendered surveillance: a critical analysis of legal system actors’ attributions of girls’ behaviors. In B. Russell and C. Torres (eds) Perceptions of Female Offenders. Vol. 1, Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42007-8_2
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Rosenthal, L. and Lobel, M. (2020) Gendered racism and the sexual and reproductive health of Black and Latina Women. Ethnicity & Health, 25(3): 367–92.
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Tam, C. C., Dauria, E. F., Cook, M. C., Ti, A., Comfort, M., and Tolou-Shams, M. (2019) Justice involvement and girls’ sexual health: directions for policy and practice. Children and Youth Services Review, 98: 278–83.
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Wennerstrom, A., Sugarman, M., Martin, D., Lobre, C. B., Haywood, C. G., and Niyogi, A. (2022) “You have to be almost dead before they ever really work on you in prison”: A qualitative study of formerly incarcerated women’s health care experiences during incarceration in Louisiana, US. Health & Social Care in the Community, 30(5): 1763–74.
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Young Womens’ Freedom Center (2022) When Young Mothers Thrive. Available from: https://youngwomenfree.org/research/when-young-mothers-thrive/#:~:text=This%20report%20is%20dedicated%20to,their%20hardships%20and%20beautiful%20experiences.
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