The Trauma to Prison Pipeline

National research points to significant risk factors for “crossing over:" multiple child welfare placements, being a minority, age of removals, and type of placements.Research shows that starting at age 12 untreated symptoms of complex trauma experienced during childhood can become acute with the onset of puberty, and trauma during childhood can become aggressive and/or delinquent during adolescence and lead juvenile justice system involvement.

Multi-System Youth: Child Welfare Risk Factors for Juvenile Justice Involvement

• About 40% of the Department of Youth Services' (DYS) detention population had an open DCF case, and 72% of youth committed to DYS were involved with DCF either prior to or during their commitment.

• The majority of multi-system youth had their first DCF intake by age 5, and nearly 40% by age 3. 

• Nearly 50% of girls and 40% of boys had experienced multiple home removals.

• While the median number of lifetime placements for children in DCF care is three, most youth in our study had far more. For girls, 40% experienced more than six placements, and 15% had eleven or more.  One young man had 37 different placements over his lifetime in care.

Double jeopardy: Child welfare involvement and trauma

Children involved in the child welfare system have experienced trauma that affects brain development and can lead to behaviors as they get older that are punished in school, and eventually by law enforcement. Behavior related to trauma during childhood — particularly on the ability to regulate emotions and behavior — must be distinguished from other mental health needs and from delinquent behavior.

The children are spending more time in out-of-home placement with an associated instability in their living situations. Instability in home placements disrupts attachments essential for attachment and brain development, compounding behavioral difficulties.

Many children in Massachusetts, including those in DCF care, are unable to access culturally competent mental and behavioral health care before their behavioral health deteriorates significantly. While great strides have been made to increase access to community based mental health services for children in Massachusetts, the need is greater, particularly in certain counties and within certain communities, than the supply of clinicians who are culturally competent and trained in the area of treating children exposed to and experiencing multiple traumas.