Rethinking Juvenile Justice in the Wake of Katrina

Abstract

There are several proposals and ideas worth being presented in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Coast disaster. Two of these are broadly defined approaches to changing juvenile justice: first using evidence-based approaches to identify and retain current intervention programs and strategies that appear to work and, second rethinking juvenile justice as a public health problem in hopes of entertaining early-intervention services for high-risk juveniles and adopting universal day care as a mechanism to reduce delinquency and recidivism rates for young offenders.

We should acknowledge that certain components of the present juvenile justice system should pass scrutiny and remain intact. However, there are myriad problems that even well-funded state delinquency systems exhibit. Katrina only helped highlight the many shortcomings of the New Orleans delinquency system.

Keywords: Hurricane Katrina, Juvenile, Juvenile Justice