This Question is for anyone who has spent time/or works in a Juvenile Prison?

Question

I am doing a paper on the juvenile prison system and I would like anyone who has ever been or who knows anything about the juvenile prison system to thoughtfully answer the following questions?

Have you or someone you know experience, or view sexual or physical abuse in a juvenile prison. If so, describe the instance(s).

How are the living conditions, rehab programs and other aspects of the prison? Productive?

If you could reconstruct the juvenile prison system, what things would you change and why?

Answer 1

In Michigan we don't call it 'prison', we call it Boy's Training School or Girl's Training School. We also have secure detention facilities which are modeled after the adult court system. I am giving you this information so you understand my answer. I have seen a few incidents of abuse in my career. Only one has been perpetrated by a staff member. The rest of the time, it was youth on youth. The living conditions are very frequently much better than the homes they were removed from. There are very few 'rehab programs' in any detention situation, it is a housing facility, much like the adult prison is. If I could change the facilities here, I would pay the staff a decent wage and put more staff on at all times for their own protection and for that of the youths placed there.