The juvenile justice system in this country is badly in need of repair. As Casey Foundation President Douglas W. Nelson notes in the 2008 KIDS COUNT Data Book essay, "Among all the policy areas affecting vulnerable children and families, juvenile justice has probably suffered the most glaring gaps between best practice and common practice." With its punitive approach and overreliance on detention for troubled youth, the system is "shaped by misinformation, hyperbole, and political prejudices."

Scholars, advocates, and practitioners have amassed a body of evidence on what has and hasn't worked in combating delinquency over the past 20 years—and on steps needed to spur reform. A key contributor has been the Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI), which has shown that jurisdictions can safely reduce reliance on secure detention while also reducing the glaring overrepresentation of young people of color in the system. The core principles of JDAI and its proven interventions are being replicated in more than 100 jurisdictions nationwide.

"Given what we now know and in light of the terrible costs of retaining the status quo in juvenile justice, there remains no reasonable excuse for inaction," Nelson notes.

While many aspects of juvenile justice reform must be state and locally driven, the federal government can play a crucial role as a catalyst for change and constructive new approaches.

The federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act needs to be reauthorized with enhanced provisions to reduce racial disparities, strengthen core protections against confining status offenders and mingling juveniles with adult offenders, and improve conditions of confinement when young people are confined.

"Many states and localities lack financial resources and technical know-how," says Bart Lubow, the Casey Foundation's director of Programs for High-Risk Youth. "They look to the federal government for guidance on how best to tackle juvenile justice challenges." To fulfill this role, the government should:

• Clarify and strengthen requirements for states to address racial disparities in the juvenile justice system and launch an intensive effort to ensure equitable treatment of youth across racial and ethnic lines.
• Establish a mandatory reporting system for all unusual incidents, injuries, and deaths to curb violence in secure detention facilities and repeal federal legislation that inhibits litigation related to these incidents.
• Revisit federal rules and regulations that encourage the transfer of juveniles to adult courts and encourage all states to set the age of majority at 18.
• Shift standard practice from the failed training school incarceration model of juvenile corrections to community treatment programs that have proven successful for most delinquent youth and rely on small, therapeutic facilities for the minority who pose a serious public safety threat.
• Provide incentives for states and local jurisdictions to keep youth better served through child welfare, special education, and mental health services outside of the juvenile justice system, which lacks the expertise and resources to provide effective treatment.