Juvenile violent crime is rising

Researchers look for answers

BY JENNIFER BROWN THE COLORADO SUN

Violent crimes that land kids and teens in Colorado’s youth corrections system are on the rise, accounting for 41% of admissions in 2022.

From homicides, to sexual assaults, to robberies at gunpoint, the violent crimes committed by young people have risen sharply during the past five years, a climb that has sociologists studying the consequences of a virtually connected but physically isolated society and the long-term effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The percentage of young people sent to a Division of Youth Services facility for a violent crime was 35% in 2021, climbing to 41% in 2022, according to the agency’s recently released annual report.

That includes 54 young people held in detention for felony homicide, 47 for attempted homicide and 40 for sexual assault last year.

“All across the state, the level of violence that we’re seeing among young people is increasing,” said Anders Jacobson, youth services director. “That’s been a stark reality for us.”

The youth corrections system, which includes 15 state-operated, locked facilities, holds young people ages 10 to 21 either in detention — before their cases go to court — and after they are “committed” by a judge. Of the 176 children and teens who were committed to serve out a sentence last year, 71 were for violent crimes, including six murders and nine attempted murders.

The result is that the population in the state’s youth corrections system has grown increasingly more violent and more likely than in prior years to have committed a crime against a person, rather than property. This year, 43% of young people committed to the system were sent for violent crimes, compared with 31% three years ago.

The division in the past several years has moved toward pods, or living spaces, with fewer kids, and has improved its youth-to-staff ratio so young people have more attention, Jacobson said. It’s also ramped up behavioral health services, including for young people who are held in detention before their sentence has been determined.

“We’re pretty well versed in dealing with these types of young peo- ple, but there are certainly times when there’s a lot of emotionally charged issues that can take place,” Jacobson said.

It’s reached the point that, occasionally, the murder victim of one of the young inmates is a loved one of another young person held in the facility, he said. “It could have been a brother. It could have been a sister. It could have been a friend,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot more of those situations.”

Still, violent incidents within youth facilities in the state have not spiked. “That’s something that we’re happy we’re seeing right now, but it’s a daily grind,” Jacobson said.

Nearly 80% of kids and teens committed to a Division of Youth Services center last year needed substance abuse treatment, according to the agency’s data. More than two-thirds of young people in the system need mental health treatment. The division’s behavioral health program, which includes two sessions of talk therapy per week for young people serving sentences, garnered national attention last year, winning a “program of the year” award from the National Commission on Correctional Health Care.

Since 2017, when the state leg-