Project RIO-Y is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor. (Baker 7) In California, a law was passed prohibiting juveniles from being held in county jails, sheriff's facilities, and other adult facilities. This was spurred by the suicide of 15-year-old Kathy Robbins. Jailed for being in the town square after curfew hour, Kathy Robbins hanged herself from the top rail of the bunk bed in her cell in the Glenn County Jail in rural California. She had been in jail for a week, as a juvenile court judge had refused to release her. She was one of six juvenile suicides that took place in adult jails in California between 1979 and 1984.

There have been negative consequences of the state and federal laws passed to implement the Federal Youth Correction Act. The laws create overcrowding in juvenile detention centers as more youth are confined to await transfer to adult prisons. The 1997 reauthorization allowed the courts to say if, prior to their incarceration, youth from 18 to 21 years of age were not identified as disabled and did not have an IEP in their last educational placement, states may exempt adult correctional facilities from responsibility for providing special education to them. While the numbers of youth affected by this provision will be relatively small, it is still going to affect a number of handicapped youth. (Meisel 95).

While it is true that we have more laws...

The 1970's laws were implemented, but the growing numbers of youth being incarcerated makes any law difficult to enforce with its original intent.
Works Cited

Baker, Luther. "Perceptions of the Effects of Workforce Development Training on Vocational Interests of Adjudicated African-American Youth with Disabilities (Dissertation)" University of Texas, 2004. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/etd/d/2004/bakerl39847/bakerl39847.pdf

Meisel, Sheri, Henderson, Kelly, Cohen, Mary, & Leone, Peter. "Collaborate to educate: Special education in juvenile correctional facilities." In Building Collaboration Between Education and Treatment for At-risk and Delinquent Youth (pp. 59-72). Richmond: National Juvenile Detention Association, Eastern Kentucky University, 1998.

Ogletree, Charles J. Jr. "Judicial activism or judicial necessity: The D.C. District Court's criminal justice legacy." Georgetown Law Journal, Mar 2002. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3805/is_200203/ai_n9024921/pg_11.

Schiraldi, Vincent, and Soler, Mark. "The Will of the People? The Public's Opinion of the Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Act of 1997." Justice Policy Institute and Youth Law Center. March 1998. http://www.justicepolicy.org/downloads/The%20Will%20of%20the%20People.doc.