Begun as a pilot project in five jurisdictions in the 1990s, the Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) reform model is now being implemented in more than 250 U.S. counties.
Ensuring that young people exposed to the legal system can realize their potential, even when they make mistakes and violate the law in serious ways.
Spearheading a national movement to reform detention — a crucial early phase of the juvenile court process — by reducing overreliance on temporary confinement for youth awaiting their court dates.
Begun as a pilot project in five jurisdictions in the 1990s, the Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) reform model is now being implemented in more than 250 U.S. counties.
Participating JDAI sites have reduced their daily detention populations by 43% since joining the initiative while maintaining or improving public safety.
In 2009, the New York Times published an editorial lauding JDAI’s “astonishing” results and recommending that the model “deserve[s] to be replicated nationwide.”
Promoting reforms to reduce incarceration and other out-of-home placements for delinquent youth.
A ground-breaking study, No Place for Kids: The Case for Reducing Reliance on Juvenile Incarceration, shows that America’s overreliance on youth incarceration is dangerous, ineffective, obsolete, wasteful and unnecessary, while providing no net benefit to public safety. The Foundation updated those findings four years later in Maltreatment of Youth in U.S. Juvenile Corrections Facilities.
We have expanded JDAI to focus on the “deep end” of the juvenile justice system — reducing long-term placements into correctional institutions and other facilities. Casey’s Juvenile Justice Strategies Group is piloting efforts in six local JDAI sites, as well as Georgia, to devise and implement reforms aimed at reducing the number of children removed from home in the delinquency court process.
Over the past decade, the Foundation has undertaken several intensive projects to help states and localities analyze and reorient their juvenile justice policies, leading to significant shifts away from juvenile incarceration in Alabama, New York City, Washington, D.C., and other jurisdictions.
Probation is court-ordered supervision of youth in the community that can last from months to years. It is the most common experience young people have within juvenile justice systems and places restrictions on what young people can do, who they can see and where they can go. Probation imposes rules — including curfew, school attendance and drug-testing mandates — on youth. Breaking these rules can result in further restrictions, return to court and even incarceration.
Diversion, like community- and school-centered prevention strategies, hold youth accountable for their behavior without resorting to legal sanctions. All young people need guidance, access to opportunities and a support network of positive adults and peers to help them mature into productive adults. Diversion and prevention allow youth with risk of legal system involvement to avoid lasting consequences and stigma that can disrupt their futures.
Advancing a key set of principles related to juvenile justice reforms.
Youth should remain at home and be supervised in the community rather than being separated from their families and placed into correctional institutions or other residential facilities when they do not pose a significant risk to public safety.
Rigorous data collection and careful data analysis are critical to success in juvenile justice reform. Objective data-driven decision tools should guide treatment at all stages of the juvenile court process.
Racial and ethnic disparities in our nation’s juvenile systems must be addressed. Vigorous efforts to identify and change policies and practices that disadvantage youth of color are vitally important.
Systems must engage families and involve them in all aspects of their children’s cases.
Violence and maltreatment remain widespread in juvenile corrections and detention facilities nationwide. Juvenile corrections agencies have a profound obligation to address these problems and provide safe and humane care to youth in their custody.
Diversion and prevention allow youth with risk of legal system involvement to avoid lasting consequences and stigma that can disrupt their futures. Diversion, like community- and school-centered prevention strategies, hold youth accountable for their behavior without resorting to legal sanctions.
JDAI is a network of juvenile justice practitioners and stakeholders across the country working to build a more effective and equitable youth justice system. Studies show that youth who spend time in juvenile detention experience far more negative outcomes. The importance of juvenile detention alternatives cannot be overstated.
Evidence shows surveillance- and compliance-oriented probation doesn’t promote rehabilitation. Probation transformation involves focused interventions that promote personal growth and long-term success for young people at significant risk of serious offenses.
Jurisdictions can employ several strategies to safely and significantly reduce the use of youth incarceration — especially for youth of color — as they work toward ending the youth prison model.
A free webinar leverages first-hand experiences to explore what is and isn’t working in youth probation. Learn about the webinar.
A recent APPA vision statement encourages juvenile justice agencies to ensure that probation promotes youth success rather than punishes. Learn more.
A new training series aims to make juvenile probation more effective and equitable. Lean more about the series.