Is Sheltering Foster Youth Akin To Incarceration?

Last month, a headline in the Los Angeles Times really caught our attention here at OPEN MINDS – L.A. County Supervisors Debate Whether To Lock Up At-Risk Foster Youth. The crux of the story – Los Angeles County (including foster care authorities, the district attorney, the sheriff, supervisors and voters) have decided “that sex-trafficked youth should no longer be tried and incarcerated as criminals but rather sheltered in foster care and offered services to protect them and help them heal.”

Early in my career I ran a locked unit for adolescents at a state hospital. We had prison screens . . .