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The Comeback and Coming-from-Behind States: An Update on Youth Incarceration in the United States

This report “highlights the continued positive trend in the nine states leading the nation on reducing incarceration, and showcases a handful of states that, while not keeping pace with the nationwide trend, have opened the door for future progress by adopting crucial incarceration-reducing policies that have been shown to improve conditions for youth and communities.” Sections of this publication include: nationwide trends in youth confinement; incarceration reduction in nine comeback states (CA, CT, IL, MS, NY, OH, TX, WA, WI)-adoption of incarceration reducing policies, census counts of incarcerated youth, number of youth per 100,000 in U.S. population, and average reduction in youth confinement; the coming-from-behind states (MI, NE, SD, WY)-highlights at a glance and incarceration reducing policies for each of the four states; and conclusion.