One-quarter of detainees in Cook County juvenile lockup are shot, killed after serving time, study finds

The Cook County Juvenile Detention Center on the Near West Side. A recent study using data tracking the experience of juveniles who were held at the facility in the mid- to late-1990s found that one in four of the 1,800 study participants were shot or killed within 16 years of being released. (Sun-Times file)

One in four youths who spent time in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center were shot or killed in the years following their release, according to data from a long-running Northwestern University study of incarcerated youth.

A study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association found rates of gunshot injury and death for some juvenile detainees were more than 20 times higher than the general population, said Linda Teplin, a Northwestern researcher who founded Northwestern’s Juvenile Project.