Taxpayers Pay
Juvenile detention costs taxpayers more than $1 billion per year nationwide.
The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) started in the 1990s as a five-site demonstration project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to keep kids out of jail. By 2009, it operated in 110 local jurisdictions in 27 states. This report documents JDAI’s progress both in reforming juvenile detention practices nationwide and contributing to the larger, more comprehensive juvenile justice reform movement.
Juvenile detention costs taxpayers more than $1 billion per year nationwide.
Detained youth are more than three times as likely to be found guilty and jailed as non-detainees.
61% of U.S. youth were in states with at least one JDAI site at the time of this report.
24 JDAI sites had reduced their detention populations by 50% or more by 2009.
Serious crime arrests had decreased significantly before JDAI started, but detention rates had not.
Research shows that youth who spend time in custody are less likely to complete high school, less likely to find employment and less likely to be from stable families. They are also more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol and be re-arrested.
