NO PLACE FOR KIDS

The Case for Reducing Juvenile Incarceration

The Annie E. Casey Foundation

About the Author: Richard A. Mendel is an independent

writer and researcher specializing in poverty-related issues in youth, employment, and community economic development. He has written extensively about youth crime prevention and juvenile justice issues, including five major publications for the Annie E. Casey Foundation and three nationally disseminated reports published by the American Youth Policy Forum.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private charitable

founders of UPS, and his siblings, who named the Foundation in honor of their mother. The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of todays vulnerable children and families. In pursuit of this goal, the Foundation makes grants that help states, cities, and neighborhoods fashion more innovative, cost-effective responses to these needs. For more information and to download copies of this report, visit www.aecf.org/noplaceforkids.
2011, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore, Maryland

organization dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States. It was established in 1948 by Jim Casey, one of the

Table of Contents
Introduction Whats Wrong With Americas Juvenile Corrections Facilities? 1. Dangerous 2. Ineffective 3. Unnecessary 4. Obsolete 5. Wasteful 6. Inadequate Is It Really Safe to Reduce Juvenile Confinement? How Should States Go About Reforming Juvenile Corrections? Priority 1: Limit Eligibility for Correctional Placements Priority 2: Invest in Promising Non-Residential Alternatives Priority 3: Change the Financial Incentives Priority 4: Adopt Best Practice Reforms for Managing Youth Offenders Priority 5: Replace Large Institutions With Small, Treatment-Oriented Facilities for the Dangerous Few Priority 6: Use Data to Hold Systems Accountable Conclusion: Embracing Better Policies, Programs, and Practices in Juvenile Corrections Endnotes
40 36 34 2

5 5 9 13 16 19 22

26

28 28 30 31 32

38

Additional resources and state-level data for many of the reports research findings are available at www.aecf.org/noplaceforkids.

Introduction

For more than a century, the predominant strategy for the treatment and punishment of serious and sometimes not-so-serious juvenile offenders in the United States has been placement into large juvenile corrections institutions, alternatively known as training schools, reformatories, or youth corrections centers. Excluding the roughly 25,000 youth held in detention centers daily awaiting their court trials or pending placement to a correctional program, the latest official national count of youth in correctional custody, conducted in 2007, found that roughly 60,500 U.S. youth were confined in correctional facilities or other residential programs each night on the order of a juvenile delinquency

three-fifths of the total youth population, were just 37 percent of the confined youth. Americas heavy reliance on juvenile incarceration is unique among the worlds developed nations. (See Fig. 1 on p. 3.) Though juvenile violent crime arrest rates are only marginally higher in the United States than in many other nations, a recently published international comparison found that Americas youth custody rate (including youth in both detention and correctional custody) was 336 of every 100,000 youth in 2002 nearly five times the rate of the next highest nation (69 per 100,000 in South Africa).2 A number of nations essentially dont incarcerate minors at all. In other words, mass incarceration of troubled and troublemaking adolescents is neither inevitable nor necessary in a modern society. State juvenile corrections systems in the United States confine youth in many types of facilities, including group homes, residential treatment centers, boot camps, wilderness programs, or county-run youth facilities (some of them locked, others secured only through staff supervision). But the largest share of committed youth about 40 percent of the totalare held in locked long-term youth correctional facilities operated primarily by state governments or by private firms under contract to states.3 These facilities are usually large, with many holding 200300 youth. They typically operate in a regimented (prison-like) fashion, and feature correctional hardware such as razor-wire, isolation cells, and locked cell blocks. Yet these institutions have never been found to reduce the criminality of troubled young people. Quite the opposite: For decades now, follow-up

court.1 For perspective, thats more adolescents than currently reside in mid-sized American cities like Louisville, Kentucky; Nashville, Tennessee; Baltimore, Maryland; or Portland, Oregon. A high proportion of these confined youth are minority. According to the most recent national count, two of every five confined youth are African Americans and one-fifth are Hispanic; non-Hispanic white youth, who comprise

FIGURE 1

YOUTH INCARCERATION RATE: UNITED STATES VS. OTHER NATIONS

350 300
INCARCERATION RATE

336.0

250 200 150 100 50 0

JUVENILE INCARCERATION RATE PER 100,000 YOUTH POPULATION

46.8 24.9 3.6

AUSTRALIA ENGLAND & WALES FINLAND

51.3 18.6
FRANCE

68.0 33.0

69.0 4.1

23.1
GERMANY

11.3
ITALY

0.1
JAPAN NETHERLANDS SCOTLAND NEW ZEALAND SOUTH AFRICA

SWEDEN

USA

Source: Hazel, Neal, Cross-National Comparison of Youth Justice, London: Youth Justice Board, 2008.

studies tracking youth released from juvenile corrections facilities have routinely reported high rates of recidivism. Meanwhile, reports of pervasive violence and abuse have been regularly emerging from these facilities for as long as anyone can remember. Nonetheless, incarceration in secure congregatecare youth corrections facilities has persisted as the signature characteristic and the biggest budget line item of most state juvenile justice systems across the nation. This status quo has been buttressed in part by public fears of youth crime and by politicians fears of being labeled soft on crime. The aversion to change has been further reinforced by the closely guarded economic interests of communities that host these facilities and of the workers employed to staff them. Finally, states continuing reliance on these institutions has been abetted by a lack of proven alternatives: if not correctional confinement for youthful offenders, what? Until the 1980s, juvenile crime prevention and treatment experts had few answers.

However, an avalanche of research has emerged over the past three decades about what works and doesnt work in combating juvenile crime. This report provides a detailed review of this research, and it comes to the following conclusion: We now have overwhelming evidence showing that wholesale incarceration of juvenile offenders is a counterproductive public policy. While a small number of youthful offenders pose a serious threat to the public and must be confined, incarcerating a broader swath of the juvenile offender population provides no benefit for public safety. It wastes vast sums of taxpayer dollars. And more often than not, it harms the well-being and dampens the future prospects of the troubled and lawbreaking youth who get locked up. Other approaches usually produce equal or better resultssometimes far better at a fraction of the cost. The idea of shuttering youth corrections facilities and substantially shrinking the number of youth in confinement may sound radical. But the reality is that in large swaths of the nation on the east coast, west coast, and in middle America,

in big states and small, red states and blueits already happening. Often prompted by lawsuits and revelations of abuse, or by mounting budget pressures, or by studies showing high recidivism, many states have slashed their juvenile corrections populations in recent yearscausing no observable increase in juvenile crime rates. The trend is continuing, though the pace of change remains unevenin part because the isolated changes are occurring largely under the radar, not as part of any organized movement. The winds of change are blowing, but they have not yet gathered gale-force intensity. The evidence is clear that these changes must continue. The weight of expert opinion solidly concurs. We have to recognize that incarceration of youth per se is toxic, says Dr. Barry Krisberg, the longtime president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency now on faculty at the University of California-Berkeley, so we need to reduce incarceration of young people to the very small dangerous few. And weve got to recognize that if we lock up a lot of kids, its going to increase crime.4 Douglas Abrams, a juvenile justice scholar at the University of Missouri, concluded in 2007 that More than a century after the creation of the nations first juvenile court grounded in rehabilitative impulses, many states still maintain inhumane, thoroughly ineffective juvenile prisons that neither rehabilitate children nor protect public safety.5 The best word to describe Americas addiction to training schools is iatrogenica cure that makes problems worse, says Paul DeMuro, who served as commissioner of the Pennsylvania juvenile corrections system in the late 1970s and has since served as an expert witness in numerous

legal cases concerning conditions of confinement in juvenile facilities. The model has been around for 150 years, and has proven a failure by any measure.6 The main body of this report details six pervasive flaws in the states long-standing heavy reliance on large, prison-like correctional institutions. Specifically, the report will show that these facilities are frequently: (1) dangerous, (2) ineffective, (3) unnecessary, (4) obsolete, (5) wasteful, and (6) inadequate. A subsequent chapter addresses the question of public safety, finding that states where juvenile confinement was sharply reduced in recent years experienced more favorable trends in juvenile crime than jurisdictions which maintained or increased their correctional facility populations. Finally, the report provides recommendations for states on how to reduce juvenile incarceration and redesign their juvenile corrections systems. The time has come for states to embrace a fundamentally different orientation to treating adolescent offendersan approach grounded in evidence that promises to be far more humane, cost-effective, and protective of public safety than our time-worn and counterproductive reliance on juvenile incarceration.

Whats Wrong With Americas Juvenile Corrections Facilities?

What is so wrong with juvenile incarceration? The case against Americas youth prisons and correctional training schools can be neatly summarized in six words: dangerous, ineffective, unnecessary, obsolete, wasteful, and inadequate.

1.

Dangerous Americas juvenile corrections institutions subject

confined youth to intolerable levels of violence, abuse, and other forms of maltreatment.

Since 1970, systemic violence, abuse, and/or excessive use of isolation or restraints have been documented in the juvenile corrections facilities of 39 states (plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico). In 32 of those states (plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico), the abusive conditions have been documented since 1990, and in 22 states (plus Washington, DC), the maltreatment has been documented since 2000. (See Fig. 2 on p. 7.) Included in these figures are states where: (a) lawsuits filed by the U.S. Justice Department and/or public interest legal advocates have succeeded in producing a court-sanctioned remedy to address alleged violence or abuse in juvenile facilities; and/or (b) authoritative reports written by reputable media outlets or respected public or private agencies have presented solid evidence of maltreatment. In all cases, the evidence shows thatat least at one particular point in

timeone or more state-funded youth corrections facilities displayed a systemic or recurring failure to protect confined youth from serious physical or psychological harm in the forms of violence from staff or other youth, sexual assaults, and/or excessive use of isolation or restraints. In other words, states have been identified not for one or a handful of isolated events, but for a sustained pattern of maltreatment.* Combined over the past four decades, 57 lawsuits in 33 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have resulted in a court-sanctioned remedy in response to alleged abuse or otherwise unconstitutional conditions in juvenile facilities. Of these lawsuits, 52 have included allegations of systemic problems with violence, physical or sexual abuse by facility staff, and/or excessive use of isolation or restraint. The remaining lawsuits have been limited to other types of unconstitutional conditions, such as failure to provide

*Even in three of the 11 states where dangerous/abusive conditions have not been demonstrated conclusively enough to meet all of the above conditions, substantial evidence of maltreatment has been reported in at least one facility since 2000.

improved education or mental health services, and more. And meaningful improvements have been achieved in many jurisdictions. However, the map does show how frequently problematic conditions have arisen in juvenile faciliIn many states, including several where there ties throughout the nation in recent decades. has not been successful litigation, media reports Moreover, the fact that so many states or investigations undertaken have experienced these problems since by advocacy organizations or That so many states 2000 suggests that few lessons have government watchdog agencies have experienced been learned from past outbreaks of have also documented systemic maltreatment, or that large juvenile these problems abuses in youth corrections corrections facilities are, by their very since 2000 suggests facilities. For instance, a 1998 nature, exceedingly difficult to operseries in the Arkansas Demothat few lessons ate in a consistently safe and humane crat-Gazette revealed violent fashion. have been learned and deplorable conditions in from past mal More specifically, Americas youth state youth facilities.7 In Concorrections institutions suffer from the necticut in 2002, audit reports treatment, or that following safety and abuse problems: released jointly by the states large juvenile Child Advocate and Attorney nWidespread physical abuse and excescorrections facili Generals offices revealed excessive use of force by facility staff. A March sive use of force and restraint ties are exceedingly 2008 Associated Press story found and other problems at the states difficult to operate that 13,000 claims of abuse had been training school,8 as well as staffreported from 2004 through 2007 in in a consistently sanctioned violence and other state-run juvenile facilities nationwide. maltreatment in a second statesafe and humane Of these, 1,343 instances of abuse had funded facility.9 In North Carofashion. been officially confirmed by authorilina, a nine-month newspaper ties.10 Countless more claims had series about abuses in one youth never been investigated properly, or never filed facility in 2003 prompted a major investigation by youth due to lack of functioning grievance by the state auditor that detailed problematic and systems and/or fear of retribution. often abusive conditions in facilities throughout the state. nAn epidemic of sexual abuse. In 2010, the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released The map on page 7 is not meant to imply that the first-ever national study on sexual abuse in dangerous or abusive conditions persist in the youth corrections facilities. For the study, BJS states identified. In most cases, revelations of surveyed a representative sample of the 26,650 widespread maltreatment have led to courtyouth confined in large juvenile facilities nationordered or state-sponsored reformsincreased wide and found that 12 percent of themmore staffing, new policies on isolation and restraint, than 3,000 young peoplehad been victimized required services (education, health care, and mental health treatment), fire safety and other environmental safety issues, or lack of required access to mail and to attorneys.*
*In recent years, the pace of private class-action litigation over conditions of confinement has slowed considerably. Passed in 1995, the Prison Litigation Reform Act placed difficult new restrictions on private lawsuits over facility conditions. Then in 2003, a federal court ruling further limited the compensation available to attorneys in class-action lawsuitseven in some cases where conditions are found to be problematic. Absent these developments, the number of successful lawsuits would likely be higher.

sexually during the prior year by staff or other youth in their facilities. Of these youth, nearly half reported incidents involving physical force or other forms of threats or coercion and unwanted genital contact. The remaining incidents involved sexual relations between staff (most often female staff ) and confined youth. In 13 of the facilities surveyed, at least 20 percent of confined youth reported either being forced into sexual acts by staff or other youth and/or sexual relations (including genital contact) with staff.11 In Texas, 750 complaints of sexual abuse were filed by youth confined in the state correctional facilities from 2000 to 2007most of which had never been addressed due to intimidation

of abused youth and the lack of a functioning grievance system.12 overreliance on isolation and restraint. While no national data are available on the use of isolation and restraints, excessive reliance on these practices was alleged in 46 of the 57 successful lawsuits filed against juvenile corrections agencies since 1970. In Ohio, youth confined in state correctional facilities spent 66,023 hours in seclusion in July 2009an average of more than 50 hours per resident.13 And that was one year after an intensive review of Ohios youth corrections facilities concluded that isolation is used too often, for too long, and without adequate treatment or educational opportunities. The
nRampant

FIGURE 2

SYSTEMIC OR RECURRING MALTREATMENT IN JUVENILE CORRECTIONS FACILITIES IN THE STATES: 1970 TO PRESENT

WA MT OR ID SD WY NV CA UT CO KS MO OK AR TX LA FL Puerto Rico MS AL GA TN SC NE IA IL IN KY OH WV VA NC ND MN WI MI PA VT NY NJ MD DE DC ME NH MA CT RI

AZ

NM

AK

HI

Violent/abusive conditions clearly documented since 2000. Violent/abusive conditions clearly documented after 1990 but not since 2000. Violent/abusive conditions clearly documented after 1970 but not since 1990. Evidence but no proof of violent/abusive conditions since 2000.

For this map, systemic or recurring maltreatment is identified when clear evidence has emerged from federal investigations, class-action lawsuits, or authoritative reports written by reputable media outlets or respected public or private agencies showing thatat least at one particular timeone or more state-funded youth corrections facilities repeatedly failed to protect youth from violence by staff or other youth, sexual assaults, and/or excessive use of isolation or restraints. Evidence but no proof is indicated when credible reports of maltreatment have emerged, but not enough to satisfy the above criteria. For more information, visit www.aecf.org/noplaceforkids.

extendedat times, months on enduse of isolation (i.e., segregation) must be immediately revisited and dramatically changed.14 A 2003 review in California found that on any given day, about 450 youth (1012 percent of the population) in six of the states large youth corrections facilities were confined to their rooms for 23 hours per day.15 youth-on-youth violence. Thirty-eight of the 57 successful lawsuits filed over conditions of confinement since 1970 have alleged failure to protect youth from harm. At the Plainfield Juvenile Correctional Facility in Indiana, four youths suffered broken jaws in assaults by other youth in a seven-month period in 200304.16 At
nUnchecked

Also, in many facilities staff are frequently subjected to taunting and other belligerent behaviors. In many states, abuse and maltreatment have reached crisis proportions in recent years.
nIn Florida, the Orlando Sun Sentinel has reported that One of the most egregious child abusers in Florida is the very agency thats supposed to rehabilitate troubled youths: the state Department of Juvenile Justice.20 nIn New York, a governors task force reported in December 2009 that there is compelling evidence that New Yorks juvenile justice system is unsafe. The task force described the youth corrections system as badly broken and declared that the need for systemwide reform is urgent.21

investigations undertaken in the wake of a lurid sex-abuse scandal in 2007 revealed a breakdown in the states juvenile corrections agency so pervasive that the agency was placed into receivership. Ohio, a 2008 fact-finding report completed in connection with a class-action lawsuit against the states Department of Youth Services supported all of the alleged failures: unnecessary force; arbitrary and excessive use of isolation and seclusion; arbitrary and excessive discipline; inadequate mental health, medical, and dental care; inadequate education services; inadequate structured programming; broadly inadequate training of staff; an unsafe living environment; and a dysfunctional grievance system.22 youth corrections system has remained in perpetual crisis for more than a decade. In March 2006, a team of nationally recognized experts assembled to assist in implementing court-ordered reforms observed, This is a system that is broken almost everywhere you look. The experts listed 18 severe and systemic deficienciesincluding high levels of violence
8 nCalifornias nIn

nIn Texas,

the Evins Regional Juvenile Center in Texas, staff documented 1,025 youth-on-youth assaults in 2005, and 568 more in the first half of 2006 an average of about three assaults every day.17 A review of safety conditions in California youth institutions in 2003 declared that One might easily conclude that an intense atmosphere of fear permeates Californias youth corrections facilities.18 violence against staff. Staff working in youth facilities are also assaulted, injured, and otherwise abused with disturbing frequency. In four Arizona juvenile correctional facilities, for instance, 484 assaults on staff were reported in 2003an average of 40 incidents per month.19
nFrequent

and fear, unsafe conditions for youth and staff, frequent lockdowns, and capitulation to gang cultureand they concluded: It is not just reform that is needed. Everything needs to be fixed.23
nArizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina, and South Dakota have also suffered highprofile juvenile corrections abuse scandals over the past 10 to 15 years, and serious problems have been cited in several other states as well.

Of course, abuse and maltreatment are not omnipresent in juvenile correctional facilities. Some facilities provide humane care for confined youth, offering meaningful rehabilitative treatment in a safe and caring environment. Others fall short of this ideal, but still protect youth from severe forms of abuse and maltreatment. Even in the worst facilities, many staff are highly dedicated with a deep concern for the well-being of their charges.

However, the first-ever nationally representative survey of youth in correctional care, published in 2010, confirms that, while not ubiquitous, abuse and maltreatment remain widespread in Americas youth corrections facilities. Among youth in secure corrections facilities or camp programs, 42 percent said they were somewhat or very afraid of being physically attacked. More specifically, 30 percent were afraid of attack from another youth, and 27 percent were afraid of attack from a staff member. (Many were afraid of attack from both youth and staff.) In addition, 45 percent of youth confined in secure correctional facilities and camp programs reported that staff use force when they dont really need to, and 30 percent said that staff place youth into solitary confinement or lock them up alone as discipline.24 Given the inability of public officials to prevent maltreatment or even to clean up facilities where inhumane conditions are revealed, it would be difficult to argue that correctional confinement offers a safe venue to rehabilitate delinquent youth.

2.

Ineffective The outcomes of correctional confinement are

poor. Recidivism rates are almost uniformly high, and incarceration in juvenile facilities depresses youths future success in education and employment.

An extensive Internet search and literature review plus limited outreach to state corrections agencies for this publication identified recidivism analyses for youth exiting juvenile correctional placements in 38 states, plus the District of Columbia. These recidivism studies vary in many important dimensions, including the populations examined

and the measures employed to track recidivism over different lengths of time. While these variations make comparing recidivism outcomes from one state to another problematic, the overall body of recidivism evidence indicates plainly that confinement in youth corrections facilities doesnt work well as a strategy to steer delinquent youth away from crime. (See Fig. 3 on p. 10.)

FIGURE 3

STATE JUVENILE RECIDIVISM RESULTS: OUTCOMES FOR YOUTH RELEASED FROM CORRECTIONAL CUSTODY Recidivism Measure Tracking Period 1 year 2 years 3 years > 3 years 1 year 2 years > 3 years 2 years 3 years > 3 years 2 years 3 years > 3 years 2 years 3 years > 3 years 2 years 3 years States Reporting DE, FL, MD, OK, SC, VA HI, MD, NC, NY, SC, VA CA, NY, TN, VA NY, SC DE, FL MI NY AK, HI, MD, NY, VA MD, NY, VA NY, SC, WA MD, MN, OR MN, OR NY HI, LA, MD, MO, NJ, NY, VA, WI IN, LA, MD, MO, NY, VA SC AZ, KS, OH, TX AZ, IN, MO, TX Range of Recidivism Results 37 67 percent 68 82 percent 74 75 percent 73 89 percent 34 45 percent 37 percent 83 percent (boys only) 38 58 percent 45 72 percent 60 85 percent 22 43 percent 34 53 percent 65 percent 15 46 percent 16 62 percent 31 percent 34 46 percent 24 51 percent

Rearrest for a new crime (misdemeanor or felony)

Rearrest for a new felony offense Adjudication/conviction for a new offense (misdemeanor or felony) Adjudication/conviction for a new felony offense Return to correctional custody (juvenile or adult) for a new offense Return to correctional custody (juvenile or adult) for a new offense or technical violation

Sources: All figures are taken from state juvenile recidivism studies. A complete list of state recidivism studies can be found online at www.aecf.org/ noplaceforkids.

Available studies of youth released from residential corrections programs find that 70 to 80 percent of youth are rearrested within two or three years. Of the six states reporting juvenile or adult arrests within two years of release, none showed less than a 68 percent rearrest rate, and virtually all states reporting threeyear rearrest rates converge at about 75 percent.
n

nRearrest.

New Adjudications/Convictions. Available studies find that 38 to 58 percent of youth released from juvenile corrections facilities are found guilty of new offenses (as a juvenile or an adult) within two years and 45 to 72 percent within three years.

Missouri, which dismantled its training schools in the early 1980s and now operates a widely praised network of small, treatment-oriented youth facilities. Excluding Missouri, available studies show that 26 to 62 percent of youth released from juvenile custody are re-incarcerated on new criminal charges within three years and 18 to 46 percent within two years. (In Missouri, the three-year re-incarceration rate is just 16.2 percent.) Long-term cohort studies paint even a bleaker picture of training schools impact on future offending. In New York State, 89 percent of boys and 81 percent of girls released from state juvenile corrections institutions in the early 1990s were arrested as adults by age 28. Among boys,

to custody. Recidivism studies examining return to custody are skewed by data from
10

nReturn

65 percent were convicted of felonies by age 28, and 71 percent were incarcerated in an adult jail or prison.25 In South Carolina, a 1995 study of youth born in 1967 showed that 82 percent of those who were incarcerated as juveniles were later imprisoned or placed on probation as adults.26 Other Research. In addition to recidivism analyses, criminologists have conducted more sophisticated studies in recent years to pinpoint the impact of juvenile confinement on the criminal careers of delinquent youth, and to compare the effectiveness of youth corrections facilities to a range of alternative treatments and punishments. This research reveals two critical lessons. First, the vast majority of studies find that incarceration is no more effective than probation or alternative sanctions in reducing the criminality of adjudicated youth, and a number of well-designed studies suggest that correctional placements actually exacerbate criminality.
FIGURE 4

In 2009, for instance, an intensive long-term study of more than 1,300 juvenile offenders compared the success of youth sentenced to juvenile corrections facilities versus similar youth who remained in the community under probation supervision. Controlling statistically for 66 different background characteristics, the study found that placement in a correctional institution resulted in a small but statistically insignificant increase in both self-reported offending and likelihood of rearrest compared with alternative sanctions. The results show no marginal gain from placement in terms of averting future offending, the authors concluded.27 Using a technique called meta-analysis, which allows scholars to aggregate results from multiple studies, a 2009 paper by Mark Lipsey assessed the results of 361 high-quality research studies measuring the effects of programs designed to rehabilitate juvenile offenders. Lipsey reported

COMMUNITY SUPERVISION VS. CORRECTIONAL CONFINEMENT IN OHIO: SUBSEQUENT INCARCERATION IN A STATE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, BY YOUTH RISK LEVEL

RECLAIM: Youth placed into community supervision programs CCF: Youth committed to and released from a Community Corrections Facility DYS RELEASES: Youth committed to and released from a state youth corrections facility DYS DISCHARGES: Youth discharged from parole or aftercare following release from a state youth corrections facility

60

SUBSEQUENT INCARCERATION RATE

50

51 50 47 46 43 40 39 41 37 44

40

30

29 22

20

10

8 4

LOW

MODERATE

HIGH

VERY HIGH

Source: Lowenkamp & Latessa, Evaluation of Ohios RECLAIM Funded Programs, Community Corrections Facilities, and DYS Facilities, 2005.

11

Damaging Youths Futures. Beyond its failure to reduce future offending and protect public safety, juvenile incarceration also damages young peoples future success. Youth in confinement An eye-opening study in Montreal tracked 779 typically face long odds in their hopes to suclow-income boys from the time they were ceed in school and the labor market. Most are kindergartners (in 1984) up through age 25. far below grade level in academic achievement, Involvement in the juvenile justice system proved and a substantial percentage suffer from learning by far the strongest predictor of adult crimidisabilities or mental health disornality of all the many variables ders. Also, many or most come from The overall body of examined. Holding other fachigh-poverty neighborhoods. Yet the tors constant, youth incarcerrecidivism evidence evidence is clear that incarceration ated as juveniles were 38 times indicates plainly itself creates a significant additional as likely as youth with equivalent barrier to success. that confinement in backgrounds and self-reported Follow-up studies have long shown offending histories to be sancyouth corrections that youth released from juvenile tioned for crimes they committed facilities doesnt 29 correctional facilities seldom succeed as adults. work well as a in school. A 1987 study of youth Second, incarceration is especially released from a training school found strategy to steer ineffective for less-serious youthful that only 28 percent reenrolled in delinquent youth offenders. Many studies find that school and remained enrolled one incarceration actually increases away from crime. year after release.33 A 2006 study recidivism among youth with lowerfound that just one-third of youth risk profiles and less-serious offendexiting a Pennsylvania correctional camp proing histories. gram who said they intended to return to school In a recent Ohio study, low- and moderate-risk actually did so.34 A recent analysis of young youth placed into community supervision propeople included in the National Longitudinal grams proved less likely to re-offend than similar Youth Survey found that incarceration at age youth placed into correctional facilities and only 16 or earlier led to a 26 percent lower chance of one-fifth as likely to be incarcerated for subsegraduating high school by age 19.35 quent offenses.30 (See Fig. 4 on p. 11.) In Florida, Juvenile incarceration also exacts a heavy toll on a 2007 study involving more than 40,000 youthyouths future employment. One study found ful offenders found that those assessed as low thatholding all other variables constant risk who were placed into residential facilities individuals incarcerated as juveniles or young not only re-offended at a higher rate than similar adults suffered a 5 percent reduction in employyouth who remained in the community, they also ment (equivalent to about three weeks less work re-offended at a higher rate than high-risk youth per year) four years after release. Black youth placed into correctional facilities.31 In Virginia, saw a 9 percent (five weeks per year) reduction. low-risk youth released from correctional facilities Even 15 years after release, those who had been had substantially higher rearrest rates than similar incarcerated in their youth worked 10 percent youth placed on probation.32 fewer hours per year than similar individuals who had not been incarcerated.36 no significant relationship in this overall analysis between recidivism effects and the level of juvenile justice supervision.28
12

3.

Unnecessary A substantial percentage of youth confined

in youth corrections facilities pose minimal risk to public safety.

A tragic irony of the abuses and regrettable outcomes detailed in the previous sections is that many of the youth confined in juvenile correctional facilities have no records of serious offending that would necessitate their confinement to protect the public. Incarceration is particularly inappropriate for these lower-risk youthincreasing their odds of recidivism and damaging their prospects for a successful transition to adulthood. Just 12 percent of the nearly 150,000 delinquent youth placed into residential programs by juvenile courts for delinquency offenses in 2007 were committed for any of the four serious violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery, or aggravated assault) that the FBI defines as violent index offenses.37 (See Fig. 5 below.) The most recent one-day snapshot of adjudicated youth confined in residential facilities nationwide (taken in
FIGURE 5

October 2007) showed that just 26 percent were committed for a violent index offense.38 Among youth confined in long-term secure facilities, which includes most training schools and youth prisons, the rate was 38 percent.39 In New York, 53 percent of youth admitted to the states youth corrections facilities in 2007 were placed for a misdemeanor. All were younger than 16 when they committed their offenses.40 In Floridas youth corrections system, 58 percent of all youth placed into Department of Juvenile Justice residential facilities in 200809including 56 percent of those placed into secure facilities were committed for misdemeanors or technical violations of probation, not felony offenses. Just 13 percent were for serious violent crimes.41 In Arkansas, just 15 percent of commitments to state youth corrections facilities in 2007 involved a serious felony crime, while 42 percent involved

MOST SERIOUS OFFENSE OF ALL COMMITTED YOUTH IN THE U.S.: 2007

TECHNICAL VIOLATIONS PUBLIC ORDER OFFENSES DRUG OFFENSES 2.8% 8.6%

4.1

11.7%

STATUS OFFENSES 0.9% HOMICIDE 8.0% RAPE/SEXUAL ASSAULT 25.9% VIOLENT INDEX OFFENSES 8.6% ROBBERY 8.5% AGGRAVATED ASSAULT 10.9% OTHER PERSON OFFENSES

PROPERTY OFFENSES

25.9%

Source: Sickmund, et al. (2011). Easy Access to the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement. Available at www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezacjrp.

13

misdemeanors. Three-fourths of the youth incarcerated for a misdemeanor had no prior adjudications.42 In South Carolina, only one of the top 10 offenses resulting in correctional placements in 200809 was a violent felony. Instead, the most common offenses were probation violations and contempt of court.43 Why are juvenile courts sending so many low-level offenders to correctional institutions? Available evidence and expert opinion point to four driving factors:

treatment. Most states pay the full cost to incarcerate juveniles in state facilities. Meanwhile, in the 38 states where local courts or probation agencies oversee community supervision and treatment programs, substantial state funding is rarely provided. Thus, local juvenile justice officials often face a perverse choice between offering cost-effective community-based programming (at considerable expense to local government) or committing youth to more expensive and less effective custody programs (at no local expense). Dumping Grounds. Juvenile corrections systems have become the primary point of service for youth with mental health conditions and other serious disadvantagesyouth who would be more appropriately and effectively served by other human service systems. Health. During the 1990s, state after state experienced the collapse of public mental health services for children and adolescents and the closing of manyin some states, allof their residential facilities for seriously disturbed youths, explains Dr. Thomas Grisso, a leading expert on mental health and juvenile justice. The juvenile justice system soon became the primary referral for youths with mental disorders.45 Schools. So-called zero tolerance policies have caused a substantial increase in school suspensions and expulsions in the past two decades, as well as an alarming number of students being arrested and referred to the juvenile justice system for disorderly behavior that was once considered routine and handled informally within the schools. Youth taken to court for minor offenses generally get some sort of slap on the wrist, such as a few days of community service, concluded a 2007 report from the Childrens Defense Fund, but they also get a record. If the youth comes before the court again, this original charge likely will increase the penalty and minor charges can add up over time.46
14 nPublic nMental

Lack of Programs and Services. Low-level youthful offenders are being placed into residential programs due to a widespread failure in most jurisdictions to invest in high-quality community-based programming for delinquent youth. This dynamic, which plays out in states and communities nationwide, was described aptly in the 1990s by then-Governor Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey: A judge in one county has many options to craft appropriate orders for young offenders. In the next county over, especially if it is an urban county, a judge may have very few options between probation and incarceration. Thats like choosing between aspirin or a lobotomy for a migraine.44 Counterproductive Financial Incentives. Many local juvenile courts and probation agencies face strong financial incentives to place youth in state custody, rather than providing community-based

nChild Welfare. Youth involved in the child welfare system are also at high risk for placement into juvenile justice facilities. Studies find that youth who have been abused or neglected as children and become involved in the child welfare system are far more likely than other youth to be arrested as juveniles.47 Once arrested, these so-called dual-jurisdiction youth face exaggerated risks both for pre-trial detention and for commitment into youth corrections facilities or other out-of-home placements.48

Excessive Lengths of Stay. For all of these reasons, Americas juvenile correctional facilities are too often incarcerating the wrong kidsand for the wrong reasons. However, admissions are only half the equation that determines the size of the confined population. Equally important is how long these young people remain in custody once admitted. Here, too, the signs point toward widespread excess. Average lengths of stay vary widely from one state to the next. In its 2009 Yearbook, the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators (CJCA) reported that the average placement duration for boys was less than six months in four states and more than 18 months in three others, while the majority of states reporting data had average lengths of stay ranging from 612 months (13 states) or 1218 months (9 states).51 This wide variation in commitment lengths is inconsistent with the evidence that longer spells of confinement have either no impact or a counterproductive impact on future offending. A recent study of New York City youth released from juvenile facilities found that, in terms of future recidivism, The impact of length of stay is minimal. A longitudinal study on youth in Philadelphia and Phoenix found that There is little or no marginal benefit, at least in terms of reducing future rate of offending, for retaining an individual in institutional placement longer. The analysis found essentially no difference in future offending for youth held 36 months vs. 69 months, 912 months, or more than 12 months.52 A study of youth in California youth facilities in the early 1980s linked longer periods of juvenile incarceration to heightened criminality during adulthood.53 More recently, a study of youth released from Florida youth corrections facilities revealed no consistent relationship between length of confinement and recidivism.54

Punishing Defiance, Not Delinquency. Many youth without serious offending histories are placed into custody for repeatedly violating rules and/or behaving disrespectfully toward judges, probation officers, and other authorities. In New York City, markers of institutional compliance and noncomplianceincluding probation violations, prior status offenses, or failure to admit their crimes and express remorseare the driving forces behind dispositional recommendations and orders, a recent study found. Youth who demonstrate to the court that they cannot or will not obey its orders are identified as prime candidates for incarceration. The study also found that despite the profound impact that they have on the risk of incarceration, these [markers of institutional non-compliance] are not very predictive of the risk of recidivism.49 Nationwide, nearly 12 percent of delinquent youth in secure correctional custody have been incarcerated for violating probation or aftercare rules, not for committing new criminal offenses. In some states, the share rises as high as 20 or even 30 percent,50 even though many youth confined on these technical violations have never been adjudicated for a violent or serious offense. Often, the decision to place a youth in a residential facility for probation violations or for violating aftercare rules is made at the sole discretion of a probation or parole officer.

15

4.

Obsolete Scholars have identified a number of interventions and

treatment strategies in recent years that consistently reduce recidivism among juvenile offenders. None requireand many are inconsistent withincarceration in large correctional institutions.

As recently as the 1970s, the study of juvenile crime and delinquency remained in its infancy. Experts and scholars could not point to a single delinquency prevention or intervention program model with solid scientific evidence of effectiveness. Since then, however, we have accumulated a wealth of new knowledge about the causes of delinquency and about what works and doesnt work in reversing delinquent behavior. By aggregating and analyzing the results of hundreds of evaluation studies, scholars have clarified the crucial characteristics that distinguish effective juvenile intervention and treatment programs from those that are ineffective or counterproductive. Programs offering counseling and treatment typically reduce recidivism, while those focused on coercion and control tend to produce negative or null effects. The most striking finding of recent research is that juvenile rehabilitation programs tend to work if, and only if, they focus on helping youth develop new skills and address personal challenges. A 2009 analysis examining 361 evaluation studies determined that the strongest results are achieved by programs employing a therapeutic intervention philosophy. Programs employing therapeutic counseling, skill-building, and case management approaches all produced an average improvement in recidivism results of at least 12 percent. By contrast, programs oriented toward surveillance, deterrence, or discipline all yielded weak, null, or negative results.55

Programs tend to succeed when they address specific risk factors known to influence delinquent and criminal behavior. These risk factors include anger and anti-social feelings, lack of self-control, lack of affection or weak supervision from parents, lack of role models, and poor academic skills. One oft-cited study found that programs targeting these and other criminogenic needs resulted in an average recidivism reduction of more than 20 percent. The same study found that programs designed primarily to promote fear of punishment (i.e., shock incarceration or scared straight) increased recidivism, as did interventions aimed at other goals such as boosting self-esteem, talking about personal/emotional problems, or improving physical fitness.56 So-called cognitive behavior therapies offer a particularly effective and economical method for reversing delinquency. This approach, which is usually taught in a group format and involves role-playing, aims to help participants change their thinking patterns and develop new problem-solving and perspective-taking skills. The training is not expensivetypically costing $1,000 per participant. Yet a recent review found that cognitive behavioral training programs are associated with a 26 percent reduction in recidivismthe most of any treatment modality.57 Evidence-Based Models. A handful of specific treatment methodologies have emerged over the past 25 years that consistently lower the

16

recidivism rates of serious and chronic juvenile offenders when measured against conventional treatment and supervision approaches in carefully constructed scientific trials. Multisystemic Therapy (MST) and Functional Family Therapy (FFT) are intensive family treatment models for delinquent youth. In MST, therapists lead a regimented three- to five-month family intervention process involving multiple contacts each week in the familys home and surrounding community. FFT employs office-based counseling (an average of 12 sessions) designed first to engage family members and then to support meaningful behavior changes that improve family interaction and address the underlying causes of delinquent behavior. Costs average $6,000 to $9,500 per youth for MST and $3,000 to $3,500 for FFT, whereas a typical stay in a juvenile corrections facility (9 to 12 months at $241 per day) costs $66,000 to $88,000. Both MST and FFT have been analyzed in numerous scientific evaluation studies over the past 25 years, including several randomized trials, and they have realized superior results in most. Experimental studies of MST have resulted in arrest rates 25 to 70 percent lower than youth receiving usual services. In most studies, MST youth have spent less than half as many days confined for subsequent offenses.58 In a study involving chronic offenders in Utah who had previously been incarcerated, FFT participants proved nearly six times more likely to avoid rearrest (40 percent vs. 7 percent) than youth receiving other treatments.59 In Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC), troubled and delinquent youth are placed with specially trained foster families for six to nine months while their parents (or legal guardians) receive intensive counseling and parent training. After a series of home visits, the

families are then reunited and provided with ongoing support until the home situation is stabilized. In several scientific studies, MTFC has proven superior to placement into group homeswhere high-need youthful offenders with less-serious offending histories are often placed. In one study, serious and chronic youthful offenders participating in MTFC were twice as likely as comparable youth placed into group homes to complete the program (and not run away), and they spent an average of 75 fewer days incarcerated over the subsequent two-year period.60 Based on these results, MST, FFT, and MTFC have all attracted substantial attention, and the models are being adopted in a number of jurisdictions nationwide. Thus far, these efforts have achieved encouraging but not uniform success. The most favorable real-world outcomes have occurred when MST and FFT are employed as an alternative to incarceration or other residential placements. In Florida, the Redirection Program provides evidence-based family treatment (primarily MST or FFT) as an alternative to incarceration or residential placement for lessserious youth offenders. An April 2010 report by Floridas Office of Policy Program Analysis & Government Accountability found that, compared to comparable youth placed into residential facilities, youth participating the Redirection Program were 9 percent less likely to be arrested for a new crime (and 15 percent less likely to be arrested for a new violent felony); 14 percent less likely to be convicted of a new felony; and 35 percent less likely to be sentenced to an adult prison.61 As of August 2008, the Redirection Program had saved taxpayers $41.6 million over the prior four years by steering less-serious offenders away from expensive residential confinement and by reducing recidivism.62 (See Fig. 6 on p. 18.)

17

FIGURE 6

SAVINGS GENERATED BY FLORIDAS REDIRECTION PROGRAM Savings Costs of Residential Placements Averted (2,033 youth) Savings from Reduced Recidivism Savings Subtotal Costs Youth Referred to Treatment Youth Completing Treatment Cost of Redirection Treatment 2,867 2,033 $14.4 million $50.8 million $ 5.2 million $56.0 million

Net Savings (Savings SubtotalCosts)

$41.6 million

Source: Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability, Redirection Saves $36.4 million and Avoids $5.2 million in Recommitment and Prison Costs, Report No. 09-27, May 2009.

Despite these successes, however, no state has scaled up any of these evidence-based models to serve all or nearly all youth who could benefit. In a recent essay, MST designer Scott Henggeler and a colleague estimated that 15,000 juvenile offenders per year participate in MST, FFT, or MTFC currently. If 160,000 juvenile justice youth are placed annually and we assume that an equal number are at high risk of placement, Henggeler noted, then fewer than 5% of eligible high-risk juvenile offenders in the U.S. are treated with an evidence-based treatment annually.63 Other Promising Approaches. Though they lack the powerful scientific evidence of MST, FFT, and MTFC, a number of other alternatives have also demonstrated promising results in reducing delinquency and obviating the need for correctional confinement. These include: Wraparound services. Such as those offered by the Wraparound Milwaukee programpool resources from a variety of funding streams (juvenile justice, community mental health, Medicaid, others) to pay for coordinators who help develop care plans and access an array of services tailored to the needs of youth with behavioral disorders or other mental health conditions.64

Rigorous career preparation and vocational trainingsuch as those provided by YouthBuild. A program for high-risk youth and young adults now operating in more than 250 sites nationwide, YouthBuild serves many court-involved youth and combines remedial academic education with hands-on construction skills training.65 Mental health and substance abuse treatment programs. Several promising programs, some with strong evidence of effectiveness, provide targeted treatment services to address mental health and substance abuse problems. These include:
nMental health diversion projectssuch as the Enhanced Mental Health Services Initiative in Texas66 and the Behavioral Health/Juvenile Justice program in Ohio67that steer youth to mental health treatment; nSpecialty court programssuch as the nearly 500 juvenile drug courts operating nationwide,68 and mental health treatment courts. While debate over their efficacy continues, these models work with delinquent youth with serious substance abuse or emotional disturbances and supervise their participation in court-ordered treatment plans, rather than assigning them to routine probation;69 and

18

nFamily-focused, non-residential substance abuse treatment methods for adolescentsfor example, Multidimensional Family Therapy and Brief Strategic Family Therapyhave demonstrated substantial reductions in substance abuse and delinquency in scientific evaluation studies.70 Indeed, a recent study found that substanceabusing youthful offenders who received any type of substance abuse treatment achieved small but statistically significant reductions in alcohol use, and those receiving extended treatment also reduced marijuana use.71

Intensive advocate/mentor programs. Under this approach, local agencies assign dedicated advocates to track, supervise, and mentor delinquent youth in the community. Youth Advocate Programs, Inc.; Southwest Key; and the Choice program are serving hundreds of youth each year in multiple sites. While none of these efforts has been carefully evaluated, all have reported positive results in terms both of recidivism and academic/employment outcomes.

5.

Wasteful Most states are spending vast sums of taxpayer money and
devoting the bulk of their juvenile justice budgets to correctional institutions and other facility placements when non-residential programming options deliver equal or better results for a fraction of the cost.

One of the most telling traits of juvenile incarceration, one of the characteristics that distinguishes it most clearly as an obsolete response to adolescent lawbreaking, is cost. Confining juvenile offenders in correctional institutions and other residential settings is far more expensive than standard probation or conventional community supervision and treatment programs. It is also many times more expensive than new evidence-based treatment models like Multisystemic Therapy, Functional Family Therapy, and Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care. Other promising approaches also cost a fraction as much as incarceration. Indeed, the dollar figures associated with juvenile confinement can be jaw-dropping. According to the American Correctional Association, the

average daily cost nationwide to incarcerate one juvenile offender in 2008 was $241. That translates to an average cost of $66,000 to $88,000 to incarcerate a young person in a juvenile correctional facility for 9 to 12 months.72 This sum is many times the cost of: tuition and fees at a public four-year university ($7,605) or a public two-year community or technical college ($2,713);73 average per pupil expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools nationwide ($10,259);74 high-quality mentoring programs such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters (slightly less than $1,000 per participant);75 or the YouthBuild career preparation program ($17,000 per participant).76 Yet, despite the problematic conditions and poor outcomes, most states continue to rely heavily

19

FIGURE 7

ANNUAL COST OF JUVENILE INCARCERATION VERSUS OTHER YOUTH INVESTMENTS

$100,000

$88,000
$80,000

$60,000

$40,000

$20,000

$16,140 $7,605 $2,713

TUITION, FEES, ROOM & BOARD AT A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY TUITION AND FEES FOR PUBLIC TWO-YEAR COLLEGE

$10,259

$17,000

$0
YOUTH INCARCERATION 12 MONTHS TUITION AND FEES AT A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY ANNUAL COST OF PUBLIC SCHOOL YOUTHBUILD

$987
BIG BROS / BIG SISTERS MENTORING PROGRAMS

Sources: American Correctional Association (for costs of youth incarceration); College Board (for costs at public universities and public two-year colleges), U.S. Census Bureau (for costs of public education), Cohen and Piquero (2008) (for costs of YouthBuild), and Public Private Ventures (for costs of Big Brothers Big Sisters program). For more information, visit www.aecf.org/noplaceforkids.

on residential placements even for youth posing minimal risks to public safety. The result is wholesale misallocationand wasteof taxpayer resources. (See Fig. 7 above.) Though no official data set is available to document the budget of every state for juvenile corrections generally or for residential confinement specifically, the American Correctional Association77 and the CJCA78 both attempt to collect state juvenile corrections spending data each year. Though incomplete, their reports suggest that in all the states combined, taxpayers spent about $5 billion in 2008 to confine and house youthful offenders in juvenile institutions. Data on how much states and localities spend on non-residential supervision and treatment programs are even harder to find. But theres no doubt that residential programs consume the bulk of all juvenile justice resources in most states. For instance, in Maryland and Florida

the state government is responsible both for correctional facilities and for probation and community-based supervision: Both states spend about twice as much on facilities as they do on probation supervision and non-residential treatment serviceseven though the vast majority of youth referred to juvenile courts are never placed in residential facilities.79 These lopsided budgets are especially problematic given the evidence that correctional placements are an inefficient use of taxpayer money.
nA 2006 study compared the costs and effectiveness of community supervision and treatment programs versus residential confinement in Ohio. Community programs had far lower costs (average of $8,539 per youth) than placement into a community corrections facility ($36,571) or state training school ($57,194). Except for the highest-risk offenders, community programs led to rearrest and subsequent confinement rates that

20

were equal to or better than those resulting from confinement.80 1990 study in Wayne County (Detroit), Michigan, randomly assigned serious but non-violent youth offenders to either intensive community supervision or state custody. Many of the youth placed in intensive supervision were arrested during the period they might otherwise have been incarcerated, mostly for minor offenses. Youth placed in state custody, by contrast, proved more inclined toward serious and violent offending following release, and they were less likely to desist from delinquency. The biggest difference was price: taxpayer costs for youth in state custody were three times those for youth in intensive supervision.81 Even more dramatic disparities emerge from studies comparing residential confinement with the evidence-based treatment models (like MST and FFT) described earlier. The Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that while Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care costs $7,000 more per young person than a conventional group home placement, each placement in MTFC ultimately saves an estimated $96,000 in lower costs to victims and the criminal justice
nA

systema return of $14 for every extra dollar spent on treatment.82 Added Costs of Defending the Indefensible. The outsized expense of correctional confinement grows even larger when states face the added costs of complying with legal settlements imposed through litigation over conditions of confinement. Since 1999, when the Los Angeles Times began documenting widespread violence and maltreatment in California Youth Authority facilities, the annual cost of confining one youth in California has grown from $45,000 to $252,000.83 (See Fig. 8 below.) By comparison, in-state tuition and fees at the states flagship university, the University of CaliforniaBerkeley, were less than $11,000 in 201011.84 In New York, where facility populations have also dropped dramatically, daily costs in the depopulated facilities have exploded to sometimes absurd levels. The state spent $170 million in the 201011 fiscal year to oversee fewer than 700 youth,85 which translates to a daily cost of $665 per daymore than the $619 required to reserve a deluxe room for a night at the renowned Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan.86 In other states, too, the costs

FIGURE 8

IMPACT OF LITIGATION ON COSTS OF JUVENILE CONFINEMENT IN CALIFORNIA

$300,000 $250,000 $200,000 $150,000

$252,000 State signs consent decree to resolve lawsuit over conditions of confinement. $218,000 $178,000

$115,000
$100,000 $50,000 $0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

$43,565 $36,118 $39,425 $40,528

$49,111 $56,247

$63,961

$83,233

$92,545

Source: Juvenile Justice Reform: Realigning Responsibilities, Little Hoover Commission, 2008.

21

required to improve conditions and comply with settlement agreements have been substantial. Perhaps the biggest cost associated with Americas continuing overreliance on correctional facilities and other residential placements is what economists refer to as opportunity costthe lost value of benefits that could be realized if these funds were reapplied to more productive uses. In this era of mass unemployment and runaway deficits at every level of government, public agencies are slashing the budgets of many

programs crucial to the well-being of children, families, and communities. Teachers are being laid off in many jurisdictions; police officers as well. Summer youth employment programs and afterschool recreational programs are being defunded. These cutbacks are particularly damaging for youth at risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system. Yet many states continue to spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars committing youth to correctional facilities that are dangerous, ineffective, wasteful, and often unnecessary.

6.

Inadequate Despite their exorbitant daily costs, most juvenile

correctional facilities are ill-prepared to address the needs of many confined youth. Often, they fail to provide even the minimum services appropriate for the care and rehabilitation of youth in confinement.

To a remarkable extent, the adolescent boys and girls confined by Americas juvenile corrections systems suffer from severe disadvantage. In fact, many placements into juvenile facilities are prompted more by the difficulties young people facetheir deep and unmet needsthan by the crimes they have committed. In effect, juvenile justice has become the treatment system of last resort for many needy youth. But by and large, juvenile corrections facilities are both poorly positioned and ill-equipped to provide effective treatment for youth with severe mental health conditions, learning disabilities, out-of-control substance abuse habits, and other acute needs. Youth in Dire Need. In 2010, the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

released the first-ever survey of youth confined by Americas juvenile justice systems. This Survey of Youth in Residential Placement revealed that the young people locked inside our nations deep-end juvenile justice facilities are overwhelmingly the product of tragic circumstances. (See Fig. 9 on p. 24.) Three of every 10 youth confined in correctional facilities had, on at least one occasion, attempted suicide. Seventy percent said that they had personally seen someone severely injured or killed, and 72 percent said that they had had something very bad or terrible happen to you.87 Among committed youth in all types of juvenile facilities, 30 percent had been physically and/ or sexually abused.88 More than 60 percent of youth included in the survey suffered with anger management issues.89 Half exhibited elevated
22

Widespread Racial and Procedural Injustice

In addition to the many practical shortcomings of our nations juvenile correctional facilitiesviolence and abuse, poor outcomes, fiscal waste, and inadequate treatment servicesthe legal processes used to incarcerate youth often violate core American values of fairness and due process. The most glaring of these injustices involve racial inequities and the failure to provide youth with effective legal representation. Unequal Treatment. At virtually every stage of the juvenile justice process, youth of colorLatinos and African Americans, particularlyreceive harsher treatment than their white counterparts, even when they enter the justice system with identical charges and offending histories. Compared with white juveniles, African-American youth are: more likely to be formally charged (and less likely to have their cases dismissed or diverted from court); far more likely to be detained pending trial; and more likely to be committed to a residential facility (and less likely to receive a probation sentence). Among youth adjudicated delinquent in juvenile court, African-American youth are more likely than white youth to be placed and, if placed, more likely to be sent to a state youth correctional facility, rather than a private group home or residential treatment center. Finally, AfricanAmerican youth are nine times as likely to be sentenced to adult prisons as white youth.90 Piled one on top of the other, the ultimate impact of these serial disparities is an enormous cumulative disadvantage for youth of color. Lack of Effective Legal Representation. The right to an attorney is fundamental to the American system of justice, andgiven their lesser maturity and weaker understanding of the legal systemquality legal representation is especially important for youthful offenders. Nonetheless, effective representation remains a scarce commodity for courtinvolved youth. In 2009, a comprehensive review of juvenile indigent defense found that modern-day juvenile courts continue to deny many low-income youth nationwide the legal representation to which they are entitled under the United States Constitution.91 Pointedly, this study asserted that the nations broken indigent defense systems for juvenile offenders increase the likelihood that low-income youth will suffer the consequences of false confessions, unconstitutional guilty pleas, wrongful convictions, pretrial detention, and incarceration in secure facilities.92

23

FIGURE 9

TRAUMATIC PASTS OF CONFINED YOUTH: PERCENTAGE OF YOUTH IN JUVENILE CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES WHO HAVE EVER...

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE

30%

SEEN SOMEONE SEVERELY INJURED OR KILLED

70%

HAD SOMETHING VERY BAD OR TERRIBLE HAPPEN TO YOU

72%

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Source: Online data analysis of the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement, U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

symptoms for anxiety, and half for depression as well.93 More than two-thirds reported serious substance abuse problems, and 59 percent said that they had been getting drunk or high several times per week (or daily) in the months leading up to their arrest.94 A number of other recent studies have also found mental health problems at epidemic levels among confined youth. On average, the research finds that about two-thirds of youth confined in juvenile facilities suffer from one or more diagnosable mental health conditionsseveral times the rate of youth in the general population. About one of every five youth in custody has a mental health disturbance that significantly impairs their capacity to function.95 Though these symptoms can sometimes be caused or exacerbated by the confinement experience itself, there is little doubt that juvenile justice youth suffer an unusually high prevalence of mental illness. Youth confined in juvenile justice facilities also suffer from learning disabilities at exceptional rates96and they exhibit extremely low levels of academic achievement and school success. Studies find that youth in correctional confinement

score four years below grade level on average. Most have been suspended from school, and most have been left back at least one grade.97 Glaring Lack of Effective Support. Most of the young people involved in the deep end of our nations juvenile justice systems have significant emotional, cognitive, and intellectual deficitsneeds often rooted in severe trauma and deprivation. They need serious help. Yet in most cases, juvenile correctional facilities are unable to provide it. Crucial gaps are commonplace. Mental Health Treatment. Among all youth in correctional confinement nationwide, more than half are held in facilities that do not conduct mental health assessments for all residents. When assessments are performed, they are often done in a haphazard fashion or by untrained staff. The Survey of Youth in Residential Placement found that two of every five youth in a residential commitment program had not received any mental health counseling. Amazingly, youth with serious mental health symptoms (anger, anxiety, suicidal feelings, attention deficitseven hallucinations) were less likely than other youth to receive counseling.98 On the other hand, troubling reports

24

have emerged in recent years showing that many confined youth are given powerful psychotropic medicationscalled atypicalssometimes without appropriate diagnosis and oversight.99 Substance Abuse Treatment. The Survey of Youth in Residential Placement also found significant gaps in the scope and quality of substance abuse treatment. One-fifth of confined youth reside in juvenile facilities that do not screen any residents for substance abuse, and another 17 percent reside in facilities that screen some but not all youth.100 Despite the pervasiveness of substance abuse, 42 percent of youth residing in juvenile corrections facilities do not receive any substance abuse treatment. This includes 35 percent of youth who report daily use of alcohol and drugs prior to being removed from their homes.101 Educational Programming. Available evidence suggests that the quality of education services offered to confined youth is often deficient. Nationally, the educational programs of many state juvenile justice systems receive failing grades, reported a team of scholars in 2003. Recurrent problems include overcrowding, frequent movement of students, lack of qualified teachers, an inability to address gaps in students schooling, and a lack of collaboration with the public school system.102 Including both detained and committed youth, just 45 percent of those with a previously diagnosed learning disability receive special education services while in custody.103 Treatment Environment. Even if juvenile corrections facilities provide high-quality education, mental health, and substance abuse treatment services, youth are unlikely to benefit when the overall environment of the facility is permeated with fear, violence, or maltreatment. Yet the majority of youth in correctional confinement

(55 percent) believe that youth in their facilities are punished unfairly by staff, and nearly half (42 percent) are afraid of being physically attacked. Over 40 percent of youth in correctional facilities say that staff are disrespectful and that they physically restrain youth without justification.104 Transitional Support. Whatever benefits youth derive from the treatment and assistance they receive (or dont receive) while confined in juvenile facilities, young people exiting residential placements will be tested severely during their transitions home. Yet the scope and quality of aftercare support provided by youth corrections agencies nationwide is notoriously weak.

According to Pat Arthur, a senior attorney for the National Center for Youth Law, Very little is done to help young people make the transition from school in the correctional setting to an appropriate school placement upon reentry.105 Despite the prevalence of severe substance abuse and psychiatric disorders among confined youth, few facilities take concerted action to sustain mental health and substance abuse treatment or to reinstate health insurance coverage as youth transition home.106

25

Is It Really Safe to Reduce Juvenile Confinement?

Jurisdictions that have substantially reduced youth confinement in recent times have not suffered any increase in juvenile offending. Indeed, sharply reducing juvenile custody populations seems not to exert any independent upward impact on juvenile offending rates. United States: 1997 to 2007. Between 1997 and 2007, the date of the most recent Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement, the share of the juvenile population confined in correctional custody nationwide declined from 256 of every 100,000 youth to 194 a 24 percent reduction. The rate at which adjudicated youth were confined in facilities described as long-term secure care correctional facilitieswhich include most training schools and youth prisonsplummeted 41 percent over this decade.107 Despite the reduced reliance on incarceration, juvenile crime rates fell across the board from 1997 to 2007, including a 27 percent drop in the juvenile arrest rate for violent index crimes.108 Clearly during this decade, reduced juvenile incarceration did not spark a new wave of youth violence. A more detailed analysis comparing trends at the state level finds no correlation between juvenile confinement rates and violent youth crime. When states are broken into four groups based on the change in their rates of juvenile confinement from 1997 to 2007, the states that decreased juvenile confinement rates most sharply (40 percent or more) saw a slightly greater decline in juvenile violent crime arrest rates than states that increased their youth confinement rates. States that reduced juvenile confinement slightly (0 to 20 percent) or moderately (20 to 40 percent) saw a smaller reduction in juvenile violent felony arrest rates.109 (See Fig. 10 on p. 27.) California 1996 to 2009. On a typical day in 1996, the California Youth Authority incarcerated 10,000 youth.110 By June 2010, the average daily population of committed youth in state correctional facilities had dropped to under 1,500an 85 percent decline.111 Even including the substantial number of California youth housed in county-run correctional camps, the states incarcerated juvenile population declined 50 percent from 1999 through 2008.112 Contrary to the common presumption that more incarceration breeds less crime, Californias juvenile crime rates have declined substantially during this period of rapid de-incarceration. The arrest rate for property index offenses fell steadily from 1995 through 2009.113 The juvenile arrest rate for violent index crimes also declined substantially, falling in 2009 to its lowest level since 1970.114 More detailed analysis of trends in within California provides no suggestion that greater reliance on incarceration improves public safety. In a July 2010 publication, the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice analyzed Californias juvenile crime and correctional trends at the county level. Across the state, the lowest-level and fastest-declining counties in terms of juvenile incarceration rates did not have significantly different juvenile crime rates or changes in crime rates compared to counties with the highest-level and fastest-increasing juvenile incarceration rates, the report found.115 Texas Before and After 2007. Unlike California, Texas began to steadily increase its incarcerated juvenile population in the mid-1990s. Between 1995 and 2000, Texas doubled the number of youth in state custody and then permitted populations to fall only modestly over the subsequent six years.116 Yet, despite pursuing a diametrically opposite incarceration policy, Texas achieved juvenile crime outcomes eerily similar to California
26

FIGURE 10

JUVENILE VIOLENT INDEX ARREST TRENDS IN STATES WITH DECLINING AND INCREASING JUVENILE CONFINEMENT RATES (19972007)
-0 -10 -20 -30 -40

-29.1

-32.1 -40.9

-43.1
-50
11 STATES WITH LARGEST DROP IN CONFINEMENT RATES (-40% TO -60%)

MEDIAN CHANGE IN JUVENILE VIOLENT ARREST RATES, 1997 TO 2007

12 STATES WITH MID-SIZED DROP IN CONFINEMENT RATES (-20% TO -40%)

10 STATES WITH SMALL DROP IN CONFINEMENT RATES (-20% TO 0%)

12 STATES WITH INCREASED CONFINEMENT RATES (+1% TO +136%)

Source: Authors analysis, using data from the 1997 and 2007 Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement; and 1997 and 2007 FBI Arrest Statistics, both available at www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb.

from 1995 through 2006. The two states had virtually identical juvenile arrest rates for serious index crimes in 1995 and saw an identical 51 percent decline over the subsequent 11 years.117 (See Fig. 11 below.) Since its youth corrections system descended into scandal in 2007, Texas has precipitously reversed course on juvenile incarceration. The Texas Youth Commissions daily confined population has fallen from 4,800 at the end of August 2006
FIGURE 11

to 2,250 in August 2009 and 1,800 by August 2010.118 Yet again, contrary to the theories of incapacitation and general deterrence, neither the states crime rate nor its juvenile arrest totals have increased since 2006. Violent juvenile felony arrests in Texas fell by 10 percent from 2006 to 2009, and total juvenile arrests fell by 9 percent.119 These data leave little doubt. Substantially reducing juvenile incarceration rates has not proven to be a catalyst for more youth crime.

TEXAS VS. CALIFORNIA: OPPOSITE JUVENILE INCARCERATION POLICIES, IDENTICAL RESULTS

FELONY INDEX CRIME ARRESTS PER 100,000 YOUTH AGES 10-17

3,000

2,500

PERCENT CHANGE IN JUVENILE INCARCERATION RATES: 1995 TO 2005 TEXAS +48% CALIFORNIA -75%

2,000

1,500
CALIFORNIA TEXAS

1,000
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Source: Males, Stahlkapf, & Macallair, Crime Rates and Youth Incarceration in Texas and California Compared: Public Safety or Public Waste?, Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice, June 2007. For more information, visit www.aecf.org/noplaceforkids.

27

How Should States Go About Reforming Juvenile Corrections?

How can states and communities best go about reducing incarceration rates and closing youth corrections facilities to ensure that reform efforts are safe, responsible, constructive, and cost-effective? The case against juvenile corrections facilities is overwhelming. Countless studies and decades of experience show that these institutions are both dangerous and ineffective. Given the limited offending histories of most youth placed into custody, secure confinement is more often than not unnecessary. Exhaustive research shows correctional confinement is an obsolete and financially wasteful model for the care and treatment of delinquent youth. Meanwhile, the care provided in correctional facilities is often inadequate to meet the extraordinary needs faced by many confined youth. Over the past three decades, delinquency scholars have achieved significant advances in determining what works in reversing delinquent behaviorincluding the development of several interventions that yield better outcomes than incarceration at a fraction of the cost. Meanwhile, pioneering jurisdictions across the nation have made noteworthy progress in recent years reducing the unnecessary and inappropriate use of correctional confinement. Numerous states have closed facilities or lowered correctional populations, reaping significant savings for taxpayers without any measurable increase in youth crime. Indeed, if states adopt proven best practices for managing juvenile offenders and then reallocate funds currently spent on incarceration to more constructive crime prevention and treatment strategies, there is every reason to believe that reducing juvenile facility populations will result in less crime, not more. The final chapter of this report provides an action agenda for states seeking to improve outcomes in their juvenile justice systems by severing their long-standing fealty to the youth incarceration model. Specifically, it identifies six key priorities for action.

1.

PRIORITY

Limit Eligibility for Correctional Placements

Commitment to a juvenile corrections facility should be reserved for youth who have committed serious offenses and pose a clear and demonstrable risk to public safety.

The most direct strategy for reducing the populations of juvenile corrections facilities is to sharply limit, by statute, the categories of youth who are eligible for correctional placement. Several states have taken just this approach in recent years,

with auspicious results. (See Fig. 12 on p. 29.) In 2007, California banned placements to state juvenile corrections facilities for all low-level and non-violent offenders. Texas passed a law the same year prohibiting commitments to the Texas

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Youth Commission except for youth adjudicated for felony-level offenses. In the 1990s, North Carolina and Virginia both enacted rules prohibiting commitments for lower-level offenses except for youth with serious histories of prior offending. In 2008, Alabama outlawed all commitments for status offenses or for probation violations in cases where a status offense was the underlying charge. These kinds of new rules are important not just for the admissions they specifically prohibit, but

also for the signal they send to judges and other juvenile justice personnel about the need to limit reliance on incarceration. In each of the states cited above, correctional populations have fallen far more than required specifically to meet the stricter guidelines. Regardless of the specific criteria states adopt, whats important is to tie placement eligibility to the crimes youth have committed and their risks of re-offendingnot to their needs for treatment or services.

FIGURE 12

WHEN STATES PLACE LIMITS ON CORRECTIONAL COMMITMENTS...JUVENILE INCARCERATION PLUMMETS

State AL

Limiting Provision Prohibit commitments of youth adjudicated for status offenses, as well as for probation violations where a status offense was the underlying charge State commitments allowed only for youth adjudicated for serious violent offenses Correctional commitments authorized only for youth adjudicated for violent crimes plus a moderate or extended history of prior offending, or for serious non-violent crimes if youth also had an extended history of prior offending Correctional commitments authorized only for youth adjudicated for felony offenses Correctional commitments allowed only for youth with a felony adjudication or a serious misdemeanor offense if youth also has previously been adjudicated for a felony or four serious misdemeanor offenses

Year Enacted 2008

Change in Incarceration Since Policy Was Enacted 40 percent (daily population in state commitment programs) 40 percent (daily population in state training schools) 73 percent (annual commitments to state training schools) 69 percent (daily population in state training schools) 52 percent (annual admissions to state training schools)

CA

2007

NC

1998

TX

2007

VA

1996

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2.

PRIORITY

Invest in Promising NonResidential Alternatives

In every jurisdiction, juvenile justice leaders must erect a broad continuum of high-quality services, supervision programs, and dispositional options to supervise and treat youthful offenders in their home communities.

Among the most long-standing and crippling weaknesses in Americas juvenile justice systems is a dearth of local options. Often, judges are forced to make an untenable choice between probation or incarceration for adolescents with moderately serious offending histories who do not pose an immediate or significant threat to public safety. To fill this void, state and local courts and corrections systems should invest in and substantially expand access to intensive and high-quality alternatives to incarceration such as: family intervention models like Multisystemic Therapy, Functional Family Therapy, and Multidimensional Treatment Foster Carethe three specific intervention models that have repeatedly proven effective with serious youthful offenders.
nRigorous nEvidence-based

youth advocate and mentoring programs, which assign youth development workers to supervise, monitor, and mentor delinquent youth in the community. skills training, either as a stand-alone treatment or in combination with other programming.
nSpecialized mental health and substance abuse treatment models that have shown significant success in helping lower offending rates and improve youths behavior, including wraparound services, mental and behavioral health diversion projects, and high-quality substance abuse treatment. nCognitive-behavioral

nIntensive

career preparation and vocational training programs, such as YouthBuild, that combine academic instruction, work experience, and counseling full time over several months.

These enhanced treatment programs and alternatives to incarceration should be reserved for youth with significant records of delinquency. Youth with limited offending historieseven those with severe emotional disturbances, substance abuse problems, or other mental health conditionsshould be diverted from juvenile court entirely. Need alone should not be a pretext for deep penetration into the juvenile justice system.

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3.

PRIORITY

Change the Financial Incentives

States must eliminate counterproductive financial incentives that encourage overreliance on correctional placements.

In most states, commitments to state custody are funded entirely with state funds, whereas local jurisdictions must foot the bill for communitybased supervision and treatment programs. Fortunately, several states have devised creative approaches in recent years to revamp their funding mechanisms and increase the incentive for local courts to treat delinquent youth in their communities whenever possible. Under the RECLAIM Ohio program, counties receive a fixed budget allocation but must reimburse the state for each youth committed to a correctional facility. The fewer youth counties place, the more funds they have available to support local treatment and supervision programs. Statewide, RECLAIM led to a 36 percent reduction in commitments after it was launched in the 1990s, an early evaluation found.120 Subsequent studies have shown that the community-based RECLAIM programs reduce offending by lowand moderate-risk youth participants and yield substantial savings for taxpayers. Redeploy Illinois, modeled on RECLAIM Ohio, substantially reduced commitments in four participating pilot sites from 2004 through 2007. Overall commitments in the pilot sites fell from 212 in 2004 to 96 in 2007 (a 55 percent drop).121 Wisconsins Youth Aids program provides $100 million per year to counties to cover the costs of all juvenile programming, butother than youth adjudicated for the most serious violent crimesthe counties are charged the full cost of care for all

youth placed in state facilities.122 Under Pennsylvanias Act 148, counties receive 80 percent reimbursement for non-residential programs and services in the community, and for placement into non-secure community-based group homes, but they receive just 60 percent for commitments to secure institutions.123 Before state officials and county leaders in Michigans Wayne County (in and around Detroit) struck an innovative agreement in 2000, judges committed several hundred youthful offenders to state youth corrections facilities each year. Under the new agreement, Wayne County retains responsibility for all committed youth, and the state reimburses the county for half of its costs to supervise and treat them locally. The county contracts with five community-based social service agencies to oversee youth offenders with appropriate levels of supervision and treatment. Nearly half of the youth assigned to these care management organizations remained in their own homes in 2009, and most of the remaining youth were housed in low- or moderate-security group homes or residential treatment centers.124 Only 18 youth per day were held in state training schools in 2009 down from 597 per day in 1999.* Few youth (less than 2 percent) commit felony offenses while under the supervision of care management organizations, and recidivism rates following treatment are well below those typical for youth released from juvenile corrections facilities.125

*Another 80 youth per day in 2009 were confined in a privately operated treatment facility for chronic and/or violent youth offenders under contract with Wayne County.

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Before California prohibited state commitments for misdemeanors and most non-violent felony crimes in 2007, the population in state youth correctional facilities had already fallen from a high of 10,000 in 1996 to just 2,500. Most of these reductions can be traced to an innovative sliding-scale fee schedule enacted in 1996 that substantially increased the cost to counties for commitments of low-level offenders. Before the

law was enacted, counties paid just a token fee ($25 per month) for any youth in state custody. Under the new rules, the counties still paid little ($150 per month) for the most serious offenders, but they had to pay 50100 percent of the actual cost for youth with less significant offending histories.126 The states confined population fell by more than half in the first seven years after the sliding-scale fees were imposed.127

4.

PRIORITY

Adopt Best Practice Reforms for Managing Youth Offenders

In addition to better programmatic alternatives, every jurisdiction must adopt complementary policies, practices, and procedures to limit unnecessary commitments and reduce confinement populations.

Specifically, state and local juvenile justice leaders should: Implement Detention Reform. Now operating in 150 jurisdictions in 35 states plus the District of Columbia, the Annie E. Casey Foundations Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) has reduced the daily detention populations in participating sites by 41 percent. JDAI jurisdictions have also reduced the number of youthful offenders committed to state custody by 34 percent.128 Because youth detained pending their adjudication hearings are placed more frequently in residential facilities than youth who remain in the community, detention reform is an essential step for any jurisdiction seeking to reduce correctional confinement. Rethink Zero Tolerance School Discipline Policies. Youth charged in court for minor misbehavior under zero tolerance school discipline policies are often placed on probation and can easily end up in a detention or corrections facility if they violate probation rules. Innovative juvenile court leaders in Clayton County, Georgia, have

reduced school-based referrals by two-thirds since 2004 by forging an agreement with the schools to limit court referrals for minor misbehavior.129 Jefferson County (Birmingham), Alabama, reduced school-based referrals by 50 percent by initiating a similar agreement in 2009. As they curtailed zero tolerance, both these counties have substantially reduced correctional placements. Make Better Use of Juvenile Court Diversion. Arrests for serious violent crimes have fallen by one-third since their highs in the mid-1990s, and serious property crime arrests have fallen by nearly half.130 Yet the total number of youth petitioned and found delinquent in juvenile courts nationwide has fallen much more modestly due to juvenile courts increasing propensity to prosecute youth for minor offenses.131 Growing evidence suggests that involvement in juvenile court proceedings can itself be criminogenicreducing the likelihood that young people will age out of delinquency as they mature. Expanding diversion and limiting formal court processing of nonserious offenses can reduce the number of youth

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who penetrate into the deep end of the juvenile corrections system. Enhance Legal Representation and Advocacy. Alarming numbers of youth go through the juvenile court process without legal representation. Even when youth are represented, caseloads are often excessive and juvenile court culture often discourages aggressive advocacy.132 This lack of timely, competent, and energetic representation is unjust. It also leads to unnecessary commitments into correctional facilities and other residential placements. Early appointment of counsel, to allow time for defenders to prepare for detention hearings, can reduce the number of youth confined pending trialand therefore the likelihood of subsequent commitments. Funding for enhanced legal advocacy can lower placement rates and improve outcomes for youth while producing a net savings for taxpayers. In both Seattle and Florida, TeamChild legal advocacy projects have substantially improved outcomes for youth.133 In Ohio, youth receiving enhanced legal advocacy proved only one-fourth as likely as a control group to be sentenced to a youth corrections facility, and they spent one-fourth as many days in state facilities.134 Reduce Correctional Placements Resulting from Violations of Probation. One of every eight youth in secure correctional custody nationwide is committed for violating probation or aftercare rules, not for committing new crimes. Many youth confined on technical violations have never been adjudicated for violent or serious offenses. By establishing clear rules to calibrate the response to rule violations and requiring supervisor approval before any decision to confine youth for those violations, many jurisdictions have substantially lowered the number of youth placed in or returned to custody for technical violations. Alabama reduced the number of youth committed on probation violations by

two-thirds from 2006 to 2009.135 In Florida, where several jurisdictions have adopted probation practice reforms, commitments for violations of probation fell 28 percent from 200506 to 200708.136 Limit Lengths of Stay in Correctional Facilities and Other Residential Placements. Youth should remain in confinement only for a limited period, less than a year in most cases (and far shorter in many cases). Research is clear that longer stays in correctional custody do not reduce future offending. However, long stays add substantially to state youth corrections budgets while harming youths prospects for success in adult life. A recent analysis of confinement trends in Florida found that the average length of stay for confined youth rose 30 percent between 200001 and 200708costing the states taxpayers an estimated $20 million per year.137 Reducing lengths of stay enough to conform with best practices could save Florida up to $49 million per year.138

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5.

PRIORITY

Replace Large Institutions With Small, TreatmentOriented Facilities for the Dangerous Few
The limited number of youthful offenders whose serious and chronic offending demand secure confinement should be placed into small, humane, and treatment-oriented facilities.

The superiority of small, community-based juvenile corrections facilities over larger, conventional training schools is widely recognized in the juvenile justice field. The advantages of smaller facilities include: the chance to keep youth close to home and engage their families; greater opportunity to recruit mentors and other volunteers; and a more hospitable treatment environment. The primary mission of small secure facilities, as well as group homes and other placement facilities, should be to help youth make lasting behavior changes and to build the skills and selfawareness necessary to succeed following release. One of the most consistent findings of research in juvenile corrections is that interventions aiming to build skills and address human needs are far more effective than those aimed at deterrence or punishment. In pursuing this mission, states will do well to follow the example of Missouri, which closed its long-troubled training schools in the early 1980s. Since then, Missouris Division of Youth Services has divided the state into five regions and built a continuum of programs in each, ranging from day treatment programs and non-secure group homes, to moderately secure facilities located in state parks and college campuses, to secure

care facilities. None of the facilities holds more than 50 youth, and each of the states six secure care facilities houses just 30 to 36 youth. In every Missouri facility, youth are placed in small groups that participate together in all education, treatment, meals, recreation, and free time. Throughout their stays in DYS facilities, youth are challenged to discuss their feelings, gain insights into their behaviors, and build their capacity to express their thoughts and emotions clearly, calmly, and respectfully even when they are upset or angry. DYS staff engage the families of confined youth and work with family members to devise successful reentry plans. DYS assigns a single case manager to oversee each youth from the time of commitment through release and into aftercare, and it provides youth with extensive supervision and support throughout the critical reentry period. Through this approach, Missouri has achieved reoffending rates that are lower than those of other states. Missouris model has been cited as a national model by the New York Times in 2007 and earned a national Innovations in American Government award from Harvard University in 2008.139

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What Role for Group Homes?

If training schools and other large correctional institutions are not a suitable venue for the care and treatment of juvenile offenders, how about group homes, residential treatment centers, or wilderness programs? What role should these and other non-secure residential programs play in a redesigned juvenile corrections system? While available research on non-secure residential programming is limited, most studies find that long-term outcomes are unfavorable. A recent study of 449 delinquent youth placed into group homes in Los Angeles found a host of negative life outcomes, including high rates of drug abuse, criminality, and educational failure. Seven years after being referred to group homes, one-fourth of these youth were incarcerated, and 12 were dead seven of them by gunshot wounds.140 A number of studies have found that group home placements lead to worse outcomes than evidence-based non-residential treatment or high-quality treatment foster care.141 Wilderness programs and boot camps have also shown little success in reducing the criminality or improving outcomes for delinquent youth, as have residential treatment centers for youth with serious emotional disturbances. Though group homes typically conform more closely than training schools to best practice in correctional treatment (small facilities, close to home, staffed by youth development personnel rather than guards, oriented to positive youth development rather than punishment), they are also susceptible to abuse and violence. Staff salaries are typically low, turnover rates high, and state oversight via licensing and regulation and accreditation often lax. Other types of group care facilitiesboot camps and wilderness programs in particularhave seen many instances of abuse and even deaths in recent years. Despite these inauspicious research results, most juvenile justice experts believe that group homes and other non-secure residential facilities should be part of the continuum of available dispositions for adjudicated youthparticularly for youth from severely troubled homes, and those for whom a parent or guardian cannot be located. Also, residential placements can provide a valuable cooling off experience for some youth who have descended into a particularly extreme behavioral cycle. Finally, there is considerable support for group homes as a step-down placement for youth returning home following secure confinement. However, group homes and other non-secure facility placements should not be widely employed as a middle option between probation supervision and secure custody. There is simply insufficient evidence that these placements have a positive long-term impact on the well-being of young people.

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6.

PRIORITY

Use Data to Hold Systems Accountable

Strong data collection must be a central pillar of efforts to reform juvenile corrections systems and to reduce overreliance on incarceration and residential placement.

Insufficient data collection and outcomes accountability is one of the pivotal weaknesses in Americas juvenile justice systems, and a crucial factor behind the continued prevalence of incarceration and other counterproductive practices. Carefully Measure Recidivism. Given the high price of secure confinement and the heavy costs to youth in liberty denied and opportunity lost, rigorous recidivism data are essential. Yet, serious gaps remain in states efforts to collect and report recidivism results: 12 states still do not track recidivism outcomes of youth released from juvenile facilities statewide in any fashion; six states track only the share of youth who return to juvenile custody; and another eight measure youths success only for 12 months or less following release. Even among states that do track meaningful measures of re-offending into early adulthood, outcome measures and methodologies vary widelymaking cross-state comparisons problematic. The Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators has recommended that states adhere to common definitions and measures of recidivism.142 Not included in the CJCA list, but just as important, states should compare the recidivism outcomes of correctional facilities and other residential programs versus intensive community-based interventions that are far cheaper and less restrictive. Track Youths Success After Release. While recidivism is important, it should not be the only standard used to monitor the effectiveness of juvenile corrections systems. These systems

should also be measured on how well they help delinquent youth achieve progress toward success in adulthood. How much academic progress do youth make while confined in youth facilities or enrolled in court-sanctioned programs? What percentage of previously confined youth reenroll in school and remain to graduation? How many are placed into jobs, and become steady workers? How much progress do youth make in overcoming behavioral health problems and reducing symptoms of mental illness? Examine Racial Disparities. Given the pervasive and continuing racial disparities at all levels of our nations juvenile justice systems, every state and every locality should be collecting and disaggregating data to identify policies, programs, and practices that may adversely or unfairly impact youth based on their race, gender, or ethnicity. Just as important, state and local juvenile justice leaders need to use those data to analyze their systems to pinpoint the hidden factors that may be perpetuating unjust disparities. Monitor Conditions of Confinement. All youth corrections institutions should be subject to rigorous oversight with maximum transparency to detect physical abuse, sexual abuse, and excessive use of isolation and restraints whenever and wherever they occur. At a minimum, states should tighten rules and strengthen systems to ensure accurate and timely reporting of all unusual incidents, injuries, and deaths that occur in juvenile facilities. In particular, states and localities should encourage or require

36

their facilities to participate in the CJCAs Performance-based Standards initiative, which is working in 198 facilities in 28 states to improve conditions and upgrade services for confined youth.143 In addition, states should follow the lead of Maryland, Texas, and others by appointing an independent watchdog to investigate any reported problems with conditions or safety in juvenile facilities. Finally, all facilities must maintain a functional grievance process to ensure youth unfettered access to report maltreatment and obtain a fair hearing, without fear of reprisal.

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Conclusion: Embracing Better Policies, Programs, and Practices in Juvenile Corrections

The evidence presented in this report makes clear that, except in cases where juvenile offenders have committed serious crimes and pose a clear and present danger to society, removing troubled and delinquent young people from their homes and families is expensive and often unnecessarywith results no better (and often far worse) on average than community-based supervision and treatment. Likewise, the evidence makes clear that throwing even serious youth offenders together in large, prison-like, and often-abusive institutions provides no public safety benefit, wastes taxpayers money, and reduces the odds that the young people will mature out of their delinquency and become productive law-abiding citizens. in correctional custody in both 1997 and 2007, 34 reduced their confinement rates. Eleven states lowered their confinement rates by 40 percent or more during this decade, and another 12 states lowered confinement by 20 to 39 percent.145 Though no nationwide figures have been compiled since 2007, the pace of juvenile de-incarceration seems only to have increased. An informal count conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in August 2011 identified 52 youth correctional facilities in 18 states, which have closed since the beginning of 2007. Several other states have closed units within facilities and reduced bed capacity without closing entire facilities. A list of youth corrections facilities closed since 2007 can be found at www.aecf.org/noplaceforkids. However, while this wave of facility closures and bed reductions is important and longoverdue, it offers little reassurance for the future. In many states, the primary cause for closures has been the short-term fiscal crisis facing state governments. In other states, federal investigations or private class-action lawsuits have been the driving force behind facility closures. The common thread has been that most decisions to shut down facilities have been ad hoc and reactive. The closures have not been based on any new consensus among policy leaders or any new philosophic commitment to reducing reliance on juvenile incarceration, and they have not been informed by any deep or evidence-based consideration of how states should best pursue the path toward reduced incarceration. In short, we are seeing a

Fortunately, we are seeing an encouraging shift away from juvenile incarceration in many states. From 1997 to 2007, the total population of youth in correctional placements nationwide declined 24 percent, and the total in long-term secure correctional facilities dropped 41 percent.144 Of the 45 states reporting data on the number of youth

38 38

wavea pendulum swing away from incarceration in juvenile justice. But this trend is not yet anchored in the kind of coherent, resilient, values-based, and evidence-driven movement needed to sustain progress once the crises of the moment fade into history. Looking to the future, the momentum toward closing youth facilities must be paired with a planned and comprehensive approach to reform. Which policies, programs, and practices work best? What safeguards are required for states as they depopulate correctional facilities for youth? What funding and accountability mechanisms are most likely to ensure success?

The goal must be broader than ending overreliance on juvenile incarceration. Rather, we must The open question is whether educate, and build a youth corrections system our society will learn from and punish youth who for tomorrow that is rooted in act on this information, whether best practice research. Not only break the law. it will not only abandon the do state and local justice systems long-standing incarceration have to offer a balanced mix of model but also embrace this treatment and supervision programs, but they more constructive, humane, and cost-effective must also calibrate their systems to ensure that paradigm for how we treat, educate, and each individual youth is directed to the treatpunish youth who break the law. ments, sanctions, and services best suited to his or her unique needs and circumstances.

For the first time in a generation, America has the opportunity to redesign the deep end of its juvenile justice system. The politics of the moment have made it politically feasible (or financially necessary) for states to substantially scale back their long-standing investment in The open ques conventional youth corrections tion is whether facilities. Meanwhile, a wealth our society will of new research has created the knowledge base necessary to not only abandon build a fundamentally new and the longstanding far more effective approach to incarceration model juvenile corrections that keeps our communities safer, makes but also embrace a better use of scarce tax dollars, more constructive, and increases the odds that more humane, and cost young people will desist from effective paradigm crime and succeed in the adult world. for how we treat,

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Endnotes

Additional resources and state-level data for many of the reports research findings are available at www.aecf.org/noplaceforkids.

1. Sickmund, Melissa, State Rates of Residential Placement of Juvenile Offenders by Placement Status, Facility Type, and Facility Size: 2007, Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice. 2. Hazel, Neal, Cross-National Comparison of Youth Justice, London: Youth Justice Board, 2008. 3. Ibid. 4. Cited in Billitteri, Thomas J., Youth Violence: Are Get Tough Policies the Best Approach?, CQ Researcher, Vol. 20, No. 9, March 5, 2010. 5. Abrams, D., A Very Special Place in Life: The History of Juvenile Justice in Missouri. Jefferson City, MO: Missouri Juvenile Justice Association, 2003. 6. Interview with the author, June 21, 2010. 7. See, for instance, Hargrove, Mary, Welcome to Hell: Troubled Youths in State Custody Tell of Beatings, Filthy Quarters, Cramped Cells, Unwanted Sex, and Caretakers Who Dont Care, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 14, 1998, downloaded from www.arkansasonline.com/news/1998/jun/14/welcome-hell. 8. Report of the Child Advocate and Attorney General Regarding Connecticut, Juvenile Training School, September 19, 2002, downloaded from www.ct.gov/oca/lib/oca/cjts_final__9-19-02.doc. 9. Report of the Child Advocate and Attorney General: Department of Children and Family Services Oversight of Haddam Hills Academy, May 30, 2002, downloaded from www.ct.gov/oca/lib/oca/haddamhills.doc. 10. Mohr, Holbrook, AP: 13K Claims of Abuse in Juvenile Detention Since 04, USA Today, March 2, 2008, downloaded from www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-02-juveniledetention_N.htm. 11. Beck, A.J., P.M. Harrison, & P. Guerino, Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 200809, Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics, January 2010, downloaded from http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/ content/pub/pdf/svjfry09.pdf. 12. Swanson, Doug J., TYC Sex Allegations Exceed 750, Dallas Morning News, March 7, 2007, downloaded from www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/030707dnpronutyc.39129f4.html. 13. Cohen, Fred, S.H. v. Stickrath: Stipulation for Injunctive Relief, Second Annual Report, July 15, 2010, downloaded from http://clcky.squarespace.com/storage/2nd%20Annual%20Report.pdf. 14. Cohen, Fred, Final Fact-Finding Report: S.H. v. Stickrath, January 2008, downloaded from http://clcky.squarespace.com/storage/documents/FINAL%20REPORT%20-%20FACT%20FINDING.doc. 15. Krisberg, Barry, General Corrections Review of the California Youth Authority, December 23, 2003, downloaded from www.nccd-crc.org/nccd/pubs/cya_report_2003.pdf. 16. Letter from Acting Assistant Attorney General Bradley J. Schlozman to Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels Re: Investigation of the Plainfield Juvenile Correctional Facility, September 9, 2005, downloaded from www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/split_indiana_plainfield_juv_findlet_9-9-05.pdf. 17. Letter from Assistant Attorney General Wan J. Kim to Texas Governor Rick Perry Re: Evins Regional Juvenile Center, March 15, 2007, downloaded from www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/evins_findlet_3-15-07.pdf.

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18. Krisberg, General Corrections Review of the California Youth Authority, supra note 15. 19. Vivian, John P., Jennifer N. Grimes, & Stella Vasquez, Assaults in Juvenile Correctional Facilities: An Exploration, Journal of Crime and Justice, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2007. 20. Stutzman, Rene, Young Offenders at Risk: Reports of Deaths and Abuse Have Racked the State Agency for Troubled Youth, Orlando Sentinel, April 11, 2004. 21. Charting a Course: A Blueprint for Transforming Juvenile Justice in New York State, A Report of Governor David Patersons Task Force on Transforming Juvenile Justice, December 2009, downloaded from www.vera.org/ download?file=2944/Charting-a-new-course-A-blueprint-for-transforming-juvenile-justice-in-New-York-State.pdf. 22. Cohen, Fred, Final Fact-Finding Report, supra note 14. 23. Murray, Christopher, Chris Baird, Ned Loughran, Fred Mills, & John Platt, Safety and Welfare Plan: Implementing Reform in California, Division of Juvenile Justice, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, March 31, 2006, downloaded from www.prisonlaw.com/pdfs/DJJSafetyPlan.pdf. 24. Authors calculations using data from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement online database, available at www.dataxplorer.com/Project/ProjUser/AdhocTableType.aspx?reset=true&ScreenID=40. 25. Coleman, Rebecca, Do Han Kim, Susan Mitchell-Herzfeld, & Therese A. Shady, Long-Term Consequences of Delinquency: Child Maltreatment and Crime in Early Adulthood, New York State Office of Children and Family Services, March 31, 2009, downloaded from www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/226577.pdf. 26. Rivers, J., & T. Trotti, South Carolina Delinquent Males: An 11-Year Follow-Up Into Adult Probation and Prison, Columbia, SC: South Carolina Department of Youth Services, 1995. 27. Loughran, T.A., E.P. Mulvey, C.A.Schubert, J. Fagan, A.R. Piquero, & S.H. Losoya, Estimating a Dose-Response Relationship Between Length of Stay and Future Recidivism in Serious Juvenile Offenders, Criminology, Vol. 47, No. 3, 2009. 28. Lipsey, Mark W., The Primary Factors that Characterize Effective Interventions with Juvenile Offenders: A Meta-Analytic Overview, Victims & Offenders, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2009. 29. Gatti, U., R.E. Tremblay, & F. Vitaro, Iatrogenic Effect of Juvenile Justice, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Vol. 50, No. 8, 2009, downloaded from www.jdaihelpdesk.org/Docs/Documents/Gatti%20et%20al%202009_1.pdf. 30. Lowenkamp, Christopher T. & Edward J. Latessa, Evaluation of Ohios RECLAIM Funded Programs, Community Corrections Facilities, and DYS Facilities, University of Cincinnati, 2005, downloaded from www.uc.edu/ccjr/ Reports/ProjectReports/Final_DYS_RECLAIM_Report_2005.pdf. 31. Baglivio, Michael T., The Prediction of Risk to Recidivate Among a Juvenile Offending Population, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Florida, 2007, downloaded from www.djj.state.fl.us/OPA/ptassistance/documents/ Dissertation.pdf. 32. Data Resource Guide Fiscal Year 2009, Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice, December 2009, downloaded from www.djj.virginia.gov/About_Us/Administrative_Units/Research_and_Evaluation_Unit/pdf/FY2009_DRG.pdf. 33. Sametz, Lynn & Donna Hamparian, Reintegrating Incarcerated Youth Into the Public School System, Juvenile & Family Court Journal, Vol. 38, No. 3, 1987. 34. Keely, James H., Will Adjudicated Youth Return to School After Residential Placement? The Results of a Predictive Variable Study, Journal of Correctional Education, Vol. 57, No. 1, 2006, downloaded from http://wrenchproject.com/linked/will%20youth%20return%20to%20school%20after%20placement.pdf. 35. Hjalmarsson, Randi, Criminal Justice Involvement and High School Completion, Journal of Urban Economics, Vol. 63, No. 2, 2008. 36. Western, Bruce & Katherine Beckett, How Unregulated is the U.S. Labor Market? The Penal System as a Labor Market Institution, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 104, No. 4, 1999.

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37. Puzzanchera, C. & W. Kang, Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics: 19852007, 2010, available online at www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezajcs. 38. Sickmund, Melissa, Juveniles Committed to Residential Placement by General Offense Category: 2007, Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice. 39. Ibid. 40. Charting a Course: A Blueprint for Transforming Juvenile Justice in New York State, supra note 21. 41. Getting Smart About Juvenile Justice in Florida: Report of the Blueprint Commission, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, January 2008, downloaded at www.djj.state.fl.us/blueprint/documents/Report_of_the_Blueprint_ Commision.pdf. 42. Arthur, Pat & Tim Roche, Juvenile Justice Reform in Arkansas: Building a Better Future for Youth, Their Families, and the Community, Arkansas Division of Youth Services, May 2008, downloaded from www.youthlaw.org/fileadmin/ ncyl/youthlaw/juv_justice/ArkansasReportFinal__2_.pdf. 43. 200809 Annual Statistical Report, South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice, October 2009, downloaded at www.state.sc.us/djj/pdfs/2008-09-Annual-Statistical-Report.pdf. 44. Cited in Juvenile Justice: Views From Both Sides of the Aisle, National Council on Crime and Delinquency, 1996. 45. Grisso, Thomas, Double Jeopardy: Adolescent Offenders With Mental Health Disorders, University of Chicago Press, 2004. 46. Americas Cradle to Prison Pipeline, Childrens Defense Fund, 2007, downloaded from www.childrensdefense.org/ child-research-data-publications/data/cradle-prison-pipeline-report-2007-full-highres.html. 47. Bilchik, Shay & Michael Nash, Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice: Two Sides of the Same Coin, Juvenile and Family Justice Today, Fall 2008, downloaded from http://cjjr.georgetown.edu/pdfs/Fall%2008%20NCJFCJ%20 Today%20feature.pdf. 48. Ryan, Joseph T., Denise Herz, Pedro M. Hernandez, & Jane Marie Marshall, Maltreatment and Delinquency: Investigating Child Welfare Bias in Juvenile Justice Processing, Children and Youth Services Review, Vol. 29, 2007. 49. Lin, Jeffrey, Exploring the Impact of Institutional Placement on the Recidivism of Delinquent Youth, National Institute of Justice, 2007, downloaded at www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/217590.pdf. 50. Sickmund, Melissa, Juveniles Committed to Residential Placement by General Offense Category: 2007, Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice. 51. CJCA Yearbook: A National Perspective on Juvenile Corrections, Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators, October 2009. 52. Loughran, et al., Estimating a Dose-Response Relationship Between Length of Stay and Future Recidivism in Serious Juvenile Offenders, supra note 27. 53. Ezell, Michael E., Examining the Overall and Offense-Specific Criminal Career Lengths of a Sample of Serious Offenders, Crime & Delinquency, Vol. 53, No. 1, 2007. 54. Winokur, Kristin Parsons, Alisa Smith, Stephanie R. Bontrager, & Julia L. Blankenship, Juvenile Recidivism and Length of Stay, Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol. 36, No. 2, 2008. 55. Lipsey, The Primary Factors that Characterize Effective Interventions with Juvenile Offenders, supra note 28. 56. Dowden, Craig & D.A. Andrews, What Works in Young Offender Treatment: A Meta-Analysis, Forum on Corrections Research, Vol. 11, No. 2, 1999. 57. Lipsey, The Primary Factors that Characterize Effective Interventions with Juvenile Offenders, supra note 28. 58. A complete list of MST outcome studies is available from the Family Services Research Center at the Medical University of South Carolina and can be downloaded at http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/psychiatry/research/ fsrc/pubs/outcome.htm.

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59. A list of FFT outcome studies is available from FFT, Inc., and can be downloaded at www.fftinc.com/about_effect.html. 60. A compilation of outcomes studies on Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care is available from TFC Consultants, Inc., and can be downloaded at www.mtfc.com/journal_articles.html. 61. Redirection Saves $51.2 Million and Continues to Reduce Recidivism, Report No. 10-38, Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability, April 2010, downloaded at www.oppaga.state.fl.us/MonitorDocs/ Reports/pdf/1038rpt.pdf. 62. Redirection Saves $36.4 Million and Avoids $5.2 Million in Recommitment and Prison Costs, Report No. 09-27, Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability, May 2009, downloaded at www.oppaga.state.fl.us/MonitorDocs/Reports/pdf/0927rpt.pdf. 63. Henggeler, Scott & Sonja J. Schoenwald, Evidence-Based Interventions for Juvenile Offenders and Juvenile Justice Policies That Support Them, Social Policy Report, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2011, downloaded from www.mtfc.com/2011_EB_Interventions_for_Juv_Offenders.pdf. 64. For information on Wraparound Milwaukee, see Kamradt, Bruce, Wraparound Milwaukee: Aiding Youth With Mental Health Needs, Juvenile Justice, Vol. 7, No. 1, April 2000, downloaded from www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ ojjdp/178256.pdf; and Mendel, Richard A., Less Cost, More Safety: Guiding Lights for Reform in Juvenile Justice, American Youth Policy Forum, 2001, downloaded at www.aypf.org/publications/lesscost/pages/full.pdf. 65. For an evaluation of a YouthBuild program targeted specifically to court-involved youth, see Cohen, Mark A. & Alex R. Piquero, An Outcome Evaluation of the YouthBuild USA Offender Project, Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, Vol. 8, No. 4, 2009. 66. Cuellar, Alison E., Larkin S. McReynolds, & Gail A. Wasserman, A Cure for Crime: Can Mental Health Treatment Diversion Reduce Crime Among Youth? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2006. 67. Kretschmar, Jeff, Daniel J. Flannery, & Fred Butcher, An Evaluation of the Behavioral Health/Juvenile Justice Initiative 200709, Kent State University Institute for the Study and Prevention of Violence, downloaded from http://test-weirs.mh.state.oh.us/assets/children-youth-families/system-of-care/bhjj-final-report-2007-2009.pdf. 68. National Drug Court Institute, Research Findings, downloaded from www.ndci.org/research on February 8, 2011. 69. For a discussion on the effectiveness of juvenile drug courts, see Marlowe, Douglas B., The Facts on Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts, National Association of Drug Court Professionals, 2010, downloaded from www.ndcrc.org/sites/default/files/PDF/Facts%20on%20Juvenile%20Drug%20Treatment%20Courts.pdf. 70. For more information on Brief Strategic Family Therapy and Multidimensional Family Therapy, see Mendel, Dick, A Family Affair, AdvoCasey, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2002, downloaded from www.aecf.org/upload/publicationfiles/rev.%20 advocasey.spring02.pdf, 71. Chassin, Laurie, George Knight, Delfino Vargas-Chanes, Sandra H. Losoya, & Diana Naranjo, Substance Use Treatment Outcomes in a Sample of Male Serious Juvenile Offenders, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, Vol. 36, No. 2, 2009. 72. American Correctional Association, as cited in Petteruti, Amanda, Nastassia Walsh, and Tracy Velazquez, The Costs of Confinement: Why Good Juvenile Justice Policies Make Good Fiscal Sense, Justice Policy Institute, 2009, downloaded from www.justicepolicy.org/uploads/justicepolicy/documents/09_05_rep_costsofconfinement_jj_ps.pdf. 73. Trends in College Pricing 2010, The College Board, 2010, downloaded from http://trends.collegeboard.org/ downloads/College_Pricing_2010.pdf. 74. Public Education Finances 2008, U.S. Census Bureau, 2010, downloaded from www2.census.gov/govs/ school/08f33pub.pdf. 75. Herrera, Carla, Jean Baldwin Grossman, Tina J. Kuah, Amy Feldman, and Jennifer McMaken with Linda J. Zucovy, Making a Difference in Schools: The Big Brothers Big Sisters School-Based Mentoring Program, Philadelphia: Public Private Ventures, 2007, downloaded from www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/assets/220_publication.pdf.

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76. Cohen, Mark A. and Alex R. Piquero, Costs and Benefits of a Targeted Intervention Program for Youthful Offenders: The YouthBuild USA Offender Project, YouthBuild USA, 2008, downloaded from www.youthbuild.org/atf/cf/% 7B22B5F680-2AF9-4ED2-B948-40C4B32E6198%7D/CohenYouthbuild%20Final%20Report.pdf. 77. American Correctional Association, 2008 Directory: Adult and Juvenile Correctional Departments, Institutions, Agencies, and Probation and Parole Authorities, American Correctional Association, 2008. 78. CJCA Yearbook, supra note 51. 79. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice will spend $241.9 million on residential programs in 2010-11 (plus another $28.2 million on aftercare for youth returning from residential placements), compared with $115.7 million for probation and other non-residential services/programs for delinquent youth2010 Legislative & General Budget Report, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, June 2010; Marylands Department of Juvenile Services spent $160 million for residential placements, compared with $79 million for case management and community services. This $160 million figure for residential confinement includes costs for both committed youth (1,300 per day) and detained youth (385 youth per day). See Juvenile Services Budget: Funding for Current Operations But Not For Significant Reforms, Maryland Budget & Tax Policy Center and Advocates for Youth, February 2008. 80. Lowenkamp & Latessa, Evaluation of Ohios RECLAIM Funded Programs, Community Correctional Facilities, and DYS Facilities: Cost-Benefit Analysis Supplemental Report, supra note 30. 81. Barton, W. & J. Butts, Viable Options: Intensive Supervision Programs for Juvenile Delinquents, Crime & Delinquency, Vol. 36, No. 2, 1990. 82. Drake, Elizabeth K., Steve Aos, & Marna G. Miller, Evidence-Based Public Policy Options to Reduce Crime and Criminal Justice Costs: Implications in Washington State, Victims and Offenders, Vol. 4., No. 2, 2009, downloaded from http://education.indiana.edu/Portals/418/Chris/Evidence%20Based%20Public%20Policy%20 Options%20to%20Reduce%20Costs-Washington%20State.pdf. 83. Juvenile Justice Reform: Realigning Responsibilities, Little Hoover Commission, 2008, downloaded from www.lhc.ca.gov/studies/192/report192.pdf. 84. US News & World Report Best Colleges 2011, downloaded from http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/ best-colleges/uc-berkeley-1312. 85. Two-Words: Wasteful and Ineffective, New York Times (editorial), October 10, 2010, downloaded from www.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/opinion/11mon1.html. 86. Best rate offered for an online reservation by the hotels website on November 4, 2010. 87. Authors calculations using data from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement online database, available at https://www.dataxplorer.com/Project/ProjUser/AdhocTableType.aspx?reset=true&ScreenID=40. 88. Sedlak, Andrea J. & Karla S. McPherson, Youths Needs and Services: Findings from the Survey of Youth in R esidential Placement, U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, April 2010, downloaded from www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/grants/227660.pdf. 89. Ibid. 90. An excellent source for information on the deep racial disparities in juvenile justice is And Justice for Some: Differential Treatment of Youth of Color in the Justice System, National Council on Crime and Delinquency, January 2007, downloaded from www.nccd-crc.org/nccd/pubs/2007jan_justice_for_some.pdf. 91. Majd, Katayoon & Patricia Puritz, The Cost of Justice: How Low-Income Youth Continue to Pay the Price of Failing Indigent Defense Systems, Georgetown Journal of Poverty & Law, Vol. 16, Symposium Issue, 2009, downloaded from www.modelsforchange.net/publications/253/The_Cost_of_Justice_How_LowIncome_Youth_ Continue_To_Pay_the_Price_of_Failing_Indigent_Defense_Systems.pdf. 92. Ibid. 93. Sedlak, et al., Youths Needs and Services: Findings from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement, supra note 88.

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94. Ibid. 95. Shufelt Jennie L. & Joseph J. Cocozza, Youth with Mental Health Disorders in the Juvenile Justice System: Results from the Multi-State Prevalence Study, Research and Program Brief, National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice, June 2006, downloaded from www.ncmhjj.com/pdfs/publications/PrevalenceRPB.pdf. 96. Quinn, Mary Magee, Robert B. Rutherford, Peter E. Leone, David Osher, & Jeffrey M. Poirier, Youth With Disabilities in Juvenile Corrections, Exceptional Children, Vol. 71, No. 3, 2005. 97. See for instance: Krezmien, Michael P., Candace A. Mulcahy, & Peter E. Leone, Detained and Committed Youth: Examining Differences in Achievement, Mental Health Needs, and Special Education Status, Education and Treatment of Children, Vol. 31, No. 4, 2008; Zagar, Rober, Jack Arbit, John R. Hughes, Robert E. Busell, & Kenneth Busch, Developmental and Disruptive Behavior Disorders Among Delinquents, Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Vol. 28, No. 3, 1989; and Wilson, Zablocki, and. Bartolotta, Educational and Behavioral Status of Females in a State Juvenile Detention and Commitment Facility. Council for Exceptional Children Convention and Expo, 2007, cited in Leone, Peter & Lois Weinberg, Addressing the Unmet Needs of Children and Youth in the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems, Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, May 2010, downloaded from http://cjjr.georgetown.edu/pdfs/ed/edpaper.pdf. 98. Authors calculations using data from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement online database, available at https://www.dataxplorer.com/Project/ProjUser/AdhocTableType.aspx?reset=true&ScreenID=40. 99. Kelly, John, Psych Meds in Jails, Youth Today, October 2010. 100. Sedlak, et al., Youths Needs and Services: Findings from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement, supra note 88. 101. Authors calculations using data from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement online database, available at https://www.dataxplorer.com/Project/ProjUser/AdhocTableType.aspx?reset=true&ScreenID=40. 102. Balfanz, Robert, Kurt Spiridakis, Ruth C. Neild, & Nettie Legters, High-Poverty Secondary School and Juvenile Justice Systems: How Neither Helps the Other and How That Could Change, New Directions for Youth Development, Vol. 99, 2003. 103. Sedlak, et al., Youths Needs and Services: Findings from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement, note 88. 104. Authors calculations using data from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement online database, available at https://www.dataxplorer.com/Project/ProjUser/AdhocTableType.aspx?reset=true&ScreenID=40. 105. Arthur, Pat, Advocacy to Help Reentering Juveniles Get Back on Track, Clearinghouse Review, Vol. 41, Nos. 34, JulyAugust 2007. 106. Gupta, Ravindra A., Kelly J. Kelleher, Kathleen Pajer, Jack Stevens and Alison Cuellar, Delinquent Youth in Corrections: Medicaid and Reentry Into the Community, Pediatrics, Vol. 115, No. 4, 2005, downloaded from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/115/4/1077; and Cuellar, Alison E., Kelly J. Kelleher, Jennifer A. Rolls, & Kathleen Pajer, Medicaid Insurance Policy for Youths Involved in the Criminal Justice System, American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 95, No. 10, 2005, downloaded from http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/ reprint/95/10/1707. 107. 1997 data from Sickmund, Melissa, T.J. Sladky, & Wei Kang, Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement Databook, 2008, available online at www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezacjrp; and 2007 data from Sickmund, Melissa, State Rates of Residential Placement of Juvenile Offenders by Placement Status, Facility Type, and Facility Size: 2007, Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice. 108. Authors calculations, using data from Puzzanchera, C., Adams, B., and Kang, W. (2009). Easy Access to FBI Arrest Statistics 19942007, available online at www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezaucr. 109. Authors calculations, using data from Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (1997 and 2007), and Easy Access of FBI Arrest Statistics (www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezaucr/asp/ucr_display.asp).

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110. Krisberg, Barry, Linh Vong, Christopher Hartney, & Susan Marchionna, A New Era in California Juvenile Justice: Downsizing the States Youth Corrections System, National Council on Crime and Delinquency, 2010, downloaded from www.nccd-crc.org/nccd/dnld/Home/A_New_Era.pdf. 111. Males, Mike & Daniel Macallair, The California Miracle: Drastically Reduced Youth Incarceration, Drastically Reduced Youth Crime, Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice, July 2010, downloaded from www.cjcj.org/files/The_California_Miracle.pdf. 112. Data analysis by Mike Males, Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice, using data from Division of Juvenile Justice, and Demographic Research Unit, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 2010. 113. Crime in California 2009, California Department of Justice, downloaded at http://ag.ca.gov/cjsc/ publications/candd/cd09/preface.pdf; and prior year versions of Crime in California, all downloaded from http://ag.ca.gov/cjsc/pubs.php#crime. 114. Data analysis by Mike Males, Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice, using data from Division of Juvenile Justice, and Demographic Research Unit, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 2010. 115. Males & Macallair, The California Miracle, supra note 111. 116. Males, Mike, Christina Stahlkapf, & Daniel Macallair, Crime Rates and Youth Incarceration in Texas and California Compared: Public Safety or Public Waste? Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice, June 2007, downloaded from www.cjcj.org/files/Crime_Rates_and_Youth_Incarceration_in_Texas_and_California_Compared.pdf 117. Ibid. 118. TYC Population Trends, Texas Youth Commission, online chart, downloaded from www.tyc.state.tx.us/research/growth_charts.html. 119. Texas Department of Public Safety, Crime in Texas reports 2006 through 2009, downloaded from www.txdps.state.tx.us/administration/crime_records/pages/crimestatistics.htm. 120. Latessa, Edward J., Michael G. Turner, Melissa M. Moon, & Brandon K. Applegate, A Statewide Evaluation of the RECLAIM Ohio Initiative, University of Cincinnati, 1998, downloaded at www.uc.edu/ccjr/Reports/Project Reports/Reclaim.PDF. 121. Redeploy Illinois Annual Report to the Governor and General AssemblyJanuary 2010, Redeploy Illinois Oversight Board, 2010, downloaded from www.jjustice.org/pdf/Redeploy%20Report%20Jan%202010.pdf. 122. Petteruti, Walsh, & Velazquez, The Costs of Confinement, supra note 72. 123. Ibid. 124. Comprehensive Statistical Report Through Fiscal Year 2009: Juvenile Justice Services Care Management System, Wayne County Department of Children and Family Services, 2009, downloaded from www.waynecounty.com/documents/cfs_docs/AnnualStatisticalReport-FY09.pdf. 125. Ibid. 126. Steinhart, David & Jeffrey A. Butts, Youth Corrections in California, Urban Institute, 2002, downloaded from www.urban.org/uploadedPDF/410529_cayouthcorrections.pdf. 127. Krisberg, et al., A New Era in California Juvenile Justice, supra note 110. 128. JDAI Annual Results Report: 2009, Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2010, downloaded from www.aecf.org/~/media/Pubs/ Initiatives/Juvenile%20Detention%20Alternatives%20Initiative/JDAIResultsReport2009/JDAIResults2009.pdf. 129. Nelson, Douglas W., A Road Map for Juvenile Justice Reform, Essay from 2008 KIDS COUNT Data Book, Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2008, downloaded from www.aecf.org/~/media/PublicationFiles/AEC180 essay_booklet_MECH.pdf.

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130. Puzzanchera, C., B. Adams, & W. Kang, Easy Access to FBI Arrest Statistics 19942007, 2009, downloaded from www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezaucr. 131. For instance, the number of youth adjudicated delinquent on disorderly conduct charges doubled from 1995 to 2007, as did the number of youth placed in residential facilities for disorderly conduct. Adjudications for vandalism, obstruction of justice, liquor law violations, drug law violations, and simple assaults have also risen during this period. Puzzanchera, C. & W. Kang, Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics 19852007, 2010, downloaded from www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezajcs. 132. Majd & Puritz, The Cost of Justice, supra note 91. 133. Ezell, M., TeamChild: Evaluation of the Second Year. Seattle, WA: University of Washington, School for Social Work, 1997, cited in Puritz, Patricia & Wendy W.L. Shang, Innovative Approaches to Juvenile Indigent Defense, U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1998, downloaded from www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/171151.pdf; and Norrbin, Stafan C. & David W. Rasmussen, An Evaluation of Team Child in Florida, Jesse Ball DuPont Fund, 2002, downloaded from www.nlada.org/DMS/Documents/1195243887.58/FL%20TeamChild%20Evaluation%20Report.pdf. 134. Mallett, Christopher A. & Linda Julian, Alternatives for Youths Advocacy Program: Reducing Minority Youth Incarceration Placements in Cleveland, Juvenile and Family Court Journal, Vol. 59, No. 3, 2008. 135. Unpublished data compiled by Casey Strategic Consulting Group, Annie E. Casey Foundation, March 2009. 136. Unpublished data analysis provided by Southern Poverty Law Center. 2010. 137. Fiscal Responsibility: The Key to a Safer, Smarter, and Stronger Juvenile Justice System, Southern Poverty Law Center, December 2010, downloaded from www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/downloads/publication/ Fiscal_Responsibility.pdf. 138. Ibid. 139. Mendel, Richard A., The Missouri Model: Reinventing the Practice of Rehabilitating Youthful Offenders, Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2010, downloaded from www.aecf.org/~/media/Pubs/Initiatives/ Juvenile%20Detention%20Alternatives%20Initiative/MOModel/MO_Fullreport_webfinal.pdf. 140. Ramchand, R., A.R. Morral, & K. Becker, Seven Year Outcomes of Adolescent Offenders in Los Angeles, American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 99, No. 5, May 2009. 141. Bright, Svoboda, et al. (2009), and Barth, R.P., Institutions vs. Foster Homes: The Empirical Base for the Second Century of Debate, Chapel Hill, NC: UNC, School of Social Work, Jordan Institute for Families, 2002. 142. Harris, Phil, Brian Lockwood, & Liz Mengers, A CJCA White Paper: Defining and Measuring Recidivism, Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators, November 2009, downloaded from http://cjca.net/cjcaresources/15/CJCA-Recidivism-White-Paper.pdf. 143. Performance-based Standards: Safety and Accountability for Juvenile Corrections and Detention Facilities, Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators, January 2011. 144. 1997 data from Sickmund, et al., Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement Databook, and 2007 data from Sickmund, Melissa, State Rates of Residential Placement of Juvenile Offenders by Placement Status, Facility Type, and Facility Size: 2007, supra note 107. 145. Ibid.

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