New Report Documents Dramatic Reductions in Youth Detention

(BALTIMORE, Md.) - A new report released by the Annie C. Casey Foundation shows that two decades of juvenile justice reform have reduced youth detention, improved public safety and saved taxpayers millions of dollars.

The report, Two Decades of JDAI: From Demonstration Project to National Standard, documents the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative’s (JDAI) progress both in reforming juvenile detention practices nationwide and also in contributing to the larger movement for more comprehensive reforms in juvenile justice.

“This progress report summarizes the remarkable efforts of more than 100 jurisdictions to re-engineer their juvenile justice systems. It shows that these sites are doing a better job redirecting delinquent youth and protecting public safety”, said Bart Lubow, Director of Programs for High Risk Youth with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which developed JDAI.

The JDAI model has expanded rapidly in recent years, and now reaches a substantial portion of the U.S. youth population. Including new sites joining the initiative in August 2009, JDAI is now operating in 110 local jurisdictions in 27 states and the District of Columbia.

Sixty-one percent of young people in the U.S. reside in states where at least one locality is a JDAI site, and the number continues to grow at a rapid rate. Reducing detention is important for youth because research shows that youth who spend time in custody are less likely to complete high school, less likely to avoid re-arrest, less likely to find employment, and less likely to form stable families.

They are also more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. Placement in locked detention – particularly if it leads to a lengthy period of correctional custody – interrupts the natural maturational process through which most young people age out of delinquent behavior.

Through JDAI, participating jurisdictions are sharply reducing their reliance on secure detention for youth awaiting trial or pending placement to correctional programs. A recent one-day census of active JDAI sites nationwide found that the total detention population was 35 percent less than the average detention population in these jurisdictions prior to joining JDAI. In 24 sites, the detention population was less than half of the average in the year prior to entering the JDAI project. JDAI is reducing detention populations in ways that protect or even enhance public safety.

JDAI model sites in Bernalillo County (Albuquerque), New Mexico, Multnomah County (Portland), Oregon, and Santa Cruz County, California have seen youth arrests for serious violent offenses decline by 27 percent, 43 percent, and 46 percent respectively – far better than the reduction in youth violent arrests nationwide in the same period. Most JDAI sites reported improvements in various public safety indicators while dramatically reducing reliance on confinement.

JDAI is also generating substantial savings for taxpayers by enabling participating jurisdictions to avoid costs for the construction and operation of secure detention facilities.

Twenty-seven JDAI sites have closed detention units or whole facilities as a result of smaller detention populations, reducing their detention capacity by a combined total of 978 beds. A handful of other jurisdictions avoided the need for construction of new or expanded detention facilities.

JDAI jurisdictions detained 873 fewer youth of color in 2007 than they did prior to beginning JDAI – in sharp contrast to the continuing increases nationwide. JDAI has played a crucial role in mobilizing local leadership to reduce disproportionate minority contact (DMC), and sites across the nation are undertaking ambitious efforts to analyze and address racial disparities. JDAI sites reported an overall decrease of 22% in the number of youth of color detained in 2007, while nationally there was a 6% increase in detention for youth of color in approximately the same period.

In addition to direct impact on detention, JDAI has also become an effective catalyst for broader reforms in juvenile justice. Findings also conclude:

JDAI jurisdictions are sharply reducing the number of youth they commit to state juvenile correctional facilities and other residential placements. Across all reporting sites, total commitments to state custody were down by 23 percent. Many JDAI jurisdictions are also pursuing other important and long overdue reforms in their juvenile systems. Some sites have developed new methods to engage and support the parents and families of court-involved youth. Many are applying effective techniques and strategies they learned in detention reform – ideas like objective decision-making tools, family conferencing, and community-based partnerships – in other phases of the juvenile court process.

JDAI stands out as unusually influential systems change initiative. In 2003, long-time director of the National Juvenile Detention Association, Earl Dunlap, described JDAI as “the single greatest reform ever undertaken in juvenile justice programming.”

The report’s findings will be discussed August 5-7th, at JDAI’s Inter-Site Conference in Washington, D.C. Approximately 500 representatives who are engaged in JDAI nationwide will convene to review the initiative’s progress and participate in seminars and workshops on detention reform.

“We know that kids in detention are more likely to end up incarcerated and to have poor odds of making successful transitions to adulthood,” said Lubow. “The report’s findings indicate the juvenile justice’s dual goals of promoting positive youth development and protecting public safety are not in conflict and can be greatly strengthened by eliminating unnecessary or inappropriate confinement.