This guidebook "provides the analytical framework that guides the review process toward alignment of jurisdictions’ practices with national best practice standards that contribute to improved system performance and youth outcomes … The PSR [Probation System Review] Guidebook aligns reform approaches with the most current advances in the field, based on up-to-date and relevant research on adolescent development, risks-needs-responsivity approaches, probation supervision, graduated system of responses, family engagement, and data-driven decision making.

Youth should be held accountable for their actions. However, there are many ways to teach youth to respect rules that do not involve incarceration and removal from family, school, and the community … A strong system of “graduated responses” - combining sanctions for violations and incentives for continued progress - can significantly reduce unnecessary incarceration, reduce racial and ethnic disparities, and improve successful probation completion rates and other outcomes for youth under supervision.

This publication describes the eight essential elements of a trauma-informed juvenile justice system. These elements are: Trauma-Informed Policies and Procedures; Identification/Screening of Youth Who Have Been Traumatized; Clinical Assessment/Intervention for Trauma-Impaired Youth; Trauma-Informed Programming and Staff Education; Prevention and Management of Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS); Trauma-informed Partnering with Youth and Families; Trauma-Informed Cross System Collaboration; and Trauma-Informed Approaches to Address Disparities and Diversity.

Whether the benefits and costs of youth prisons [aka training schools” or “youth centers”] are weighed on a scale of public dollars, community safety, or young people’s futures, they are damaging the very people they are supposed to help and have been for generations. It is difficult to find an area of U.S. policy where the benefits and costs are more out of balance, where the evidence of failure is clearer, or where we know with more clarity what we should be doing differently.

America’s youth confinement rate dropped across all racial and ethnic groups during the last decade - and by 40% overall. While these numbers are moving in the right direction, there’s clear room for improvement, according to statistics from the KIDS COUNT Data Center. In 2013, the last full year for which data is available, America still placed more than 54,000 youth in juvenile detention, correctional and residential facilities (website).

A collection of the NDCI's Fact Sheets covering a number of different Drug Court topics.

Indeed, it's not just prisoners being treated for mental illness who feel a stigma—it's also their providers. "A lot of practices don't want our prisoners," Penn said. "They're worried about the danger." Having providers come to the patients, in prison, poses its own problems. "The providers who are available, they don't want to be driving to a prison and patted down," Penn said. "We've had clinical staff be assaulted or threatened." It's also tough to orchestrate travel between the facilities, which can be miles apart.

This article by Judge Paul G. Cassell defends the use of victim impact statements. He argues impact statements have received widespread support because they promote justice without interfering with any legitimate interests of criminal defendants. The statements help convey valuable information to sentencing judges and have other beneficial effects. The benefits are all obtained without unfairly prejudicing defendants in any tangible way.

The toolkit provides effective culturally responsive practices for prevention programs supporting Latina youth who are at risk of placement in juvenile detention including recommendations, action steps for each recommendation, and targeted resources. Each recommendation and the corresponding action steps are included in a checklist that prevention programs can use to support direct practice, programming, and system changes (p. 4).

This report describes the implementation of PACE at the 14 centers that are participating in the evaluation. The research found that PACE successfully implemented its unique model as planned in multiple locations. Besides detailing the program’s dissemination of its gender-responsive culture and services, these findings provide useful information to social service providers who seek to replicate their own programs.