New Report Examines High Rates of Detention for Wyoming Children Encountering the Juvenile Justice System

For years, Wyoming has had one of the highest rates of youth incarceration in the nation. A recent evaluation of Wyoming’s juvenile justice system identifies reasons for this and provides suggestions to improving the state’s juvenile justice system with the goal of ensuring all of Wyoming’s youth can reach their full potential. Sheridan Media’s Ron Richter has the details.

A publication recently released by the Wyoming Community Foundation titled “From School to Court: Pathways into Wyoming’s Juvenile Justice System” examines how youth enter the system, how cases are handled and what happens to children once they do enter the juvenile justice system. The publication was produced by the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center at the University of Wyoming.

The report highlights that counties operate under different rules, resources, and processes, which creates a wide array of approaches in how children are treated. For example, judges file cases differently and with different courts. Inconsistencies such as these make it difficult to ensure fairness, meet federal standards, and sometimes keep children safe.

The publication also highlights Wyoming’s continued decision to not fully participate in the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, which is a framework designed to prevent children from entering the system in the first place, and to ensure those who do enter the system stay safe. The most recent available data shows that Wyoming would not meet several of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act’s core protections if it were a participating state.

Among the report’s key findings are that children are not consistently kept fully separated from adults in detention. Children are detained for status offenses like running away or violating curfew at more than four times higher than the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act  permits. Children of color, especially American Indian youth, are detained at much higher rates than white children in Wyoming. You can view the report in its entirety here.