The Dangers of Detention: The Impact of Incarcerating Youth in Detention and Other Secure Facilities
Source: Justice Policy Institute
Resource Type: Documents and Publications
Focus Population: BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), People with Juvenile Justice System Involvement, Youth, Youth of Transition Age
Topics: Criminal or Juvenile Justice System
Despite the lowest youth crime rates in 20 years, hundreds of thousands of young people are locked away every year in the nation’s 591 secure detention centers. This policy brief looks at the consequences of detention on young people, their families, and communities. The authors recommend that, given the new findings that detaining youth may not make communities safer, the costs of detaining young people who do not need to be there are simply too high. Policymakers, instead, should look to detention reform as a means to reduce the number of young people needlessly detained, and reinvest the savings in juvenile interventions proven to reduce recidivism and crime, and that can help build healthy and safe communities.