Seventeen-year-old Jaylan Banks punched a guard at the Illinois Youth Center at Harrisburg as they struggled over a bottle of body wash. David Hayes, 18, spat in a guard’s face. And 18-year-old Lavell Staples was accused of shoving a guard as he tried to force his way out of his room.
A few years ago, these incidents would have cost the teenagers their privileges, earned them a stint in solitary confinement or added time to their juvenile sentences. But these young men are among almost a dozen from the Harrisburg facility who now face substantial sentences in adult prison instead, a penalty even state officials call troubling and at odds with a court-ordered push to make the juvenile justice system more rehabilitative.
Staples began serving a four-year term last month. Hayes was sentenced to six years. And Banks received eight years.
[For more on this story by Duaa Eldeib, go to https://www.propublica.org/art...-youths-adult-prison]
Photo: Jaylan Banks, 18, was sentenced to eight years in an adult prison for punching a correctional officer at the juvenile correctional center in Harrisburg in southern Illinois. In the past, he might have lost privileges, served a short stint in solitary confinement or had his juvenile term extended. (Nick Schnelle for ProPublica Illinois)
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