States across the country have seen huge reductions in the number of youth incarcerated in detention halls, camps, and state secure facilities. One major reason for the reductions is successful legislation developed by advocates and legislators on both sides of the aisle.
The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) spoke with 140 juvenile justice stakeholders across the country in a series of interviews, focus groups, and convenings. Analysis of the data collected from those conversations allowed NCCD to identify legislative strategies from several states. In some cases, these bills or budgets might have been the first big step in the reform process; in others they were crucial to subsequent efforts that expanded the reform and accelerated the juvenile deincarceration trend. Some examples are listed here.
This publication is part of an eight-part series of information sheets and reports developed from a national study on deincarceration conducted by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. The complete series, along with a ninth piece containing notes and resources, can be found here: http://nccdglobal.org/what-we-do/our-focus-areas/juvenile-justice/deincarceration-reports.
