The juvenile justice system has seen marked changes: youth confinement and juvenile arrests for violent crimes dropped approximately 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. While these developments are admirable, they mask issues that remain in juvenile justice systems across the country. Many jurisdictions don't track recidivism, and those that do have high rates of reoffending—sometimes as high as 75 percent after three years. This featured publication lays out four core principles of reducing juvenile recidivism and lessons learned about how to implement those principles effectively.

Elizabeth Seigle, Nastassia Walsh, and Josh Weber | 2014 | The Council of State Governments Justice Center

In many states, up to 80 percent of the youth who are incarcerated are rearrested within 3 years of release, and outcomes for youth on community supervision are often not much better. In response to these challenges, the CSG Justice Center offers tools, resources, and technical assistance to help state and local officials develop and implement plans to improve outcomes for youth and use resources more efficiently.

Checklists

The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center has designed a set of tools to help juvenile justice leaders and other key stakeholders assess whether policy, practice, and resource allocation decisions are aligned with research on what is effective and identify opportunities to make changes that will improve outcomes for youth in the juvenile justice system.

Acknowledgements

This work in the area of youth is supported by key partners including the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change Initiative, Georgetown University’s Center on Juvenile Justice Reform, the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators, the American Probation and Parole Association, the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Atlantic Philanthropies, and others.
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