What follows is important information needed to understand our juvenile justice system and how it is failing us in many ways. The evidence suggests that jailing juveniles doesn’t rehabilitate and appears to cause more harm than good. This was originally posted earlier this year, but in light of renewed discussions on how to curb violence in America, a review of our Juvenile Justice system is appropriate.
No Place for Kids: The Case for Reducing Juvenile Incarceration
The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s new report, No Place for Kids: The Case for Reducing Juvenile Incarceration assembles a vast array of evidence to demonstrate that incarcerating kids doesn’t work: Youth prisons do not reduce future offending, they waste taxpayer dollars, and they frequently expose youth to dangerous and abusive conditions. The report also shows that many states have substantially reduced their juvenile correctional facility populations in recent years, and it finds that these states have seen no resulting increase in juvenile crime or violence. Finally, the report highlights successful reform efforts from several states and provides recommendations for how states can reduce juvenile incarceration rates and redesign their juvenile correction systems to better serve young people and the public.
State-level data:
- Total Number of Juveniles in Committed Custody in the U.S. (1997 and 2007)
- 2008 Juvenile Correction Budgets by State
- Facility Closures in the United States Since 2007
- Change in Juvenile Correction Confinement Rates in the U.S. (1997 and 2007)
- Recidivism by Youth Released from State-funded Juvenile Correctional Facilities
- Quality Gaps in State Recidivism Data for Youth Released from Juvenile Correctional Facilities
- Litigation and Federal Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act Investigations over Conditions of Confinement
- Juvenile Arrest Rates (1997 to 2007)
- Systemic or Recurring Maltreatment in Juvenile Corrections Facilities
- Does Lowering Juvenile Confinement Rates at the State Level Foreshadow Increased Juvenile Violence?
Download the Map of Recurring Maltreatment in Juvenile Correctional Facilities in the U.S. (2.17 KB)
Data Driven Viewpoints 
