Over the past couple of years, North Dakota has implemented juvenile justice reforms.

And a new national report says there's been major progress in the U.S. in reducing youth incarceration rates, but troubling disparities remain.

The Sentencing Project is out with findings that show between 2000 and 2022, there was a 75% decline in youth incarceration around the country.

That coincides with a drop in arrest rates among minors.

The Project's Director of Youth Justice Josh Rovner said, it's worth noting that youths of color are still much more likely than white teens to be held in juvenile facilities.

"This is one of the most daunting problems, that youth of color are treated more harshly at every point of contact with the justice system," said Rovner. "They are more likely to be arrested, and after they've been arrested, they are less likely to be referred to diversionary programs."

Nationally, Indigenous youths were nearly 3.5 times more likely than whites to be detained.

Native Americans are the largest minority population in North Dakota, and a separate state report found that in 2023, Indigenous youths represented 30% of juvenile detentions.

Rovner said he feels that "over-policing" is a factor, and limiting law enforcement interactions for non-serious offenses can help reduce disparities.

Rovner said one way to do that is by overhauling how police officers are placed in the school setting.

As for the long-term progress overall, Rovner said he hopes the public takes notice of what the data show.

"I think that the reason that this report has resonance," said Rovner, "is that it's surprising to many people in the country that believe that things are always getting worse, that believe that this generation of kids is worse than any generation that came before it, when the evidence doesn't back that up."

Rovner suggested that policymakers not lose sight of how successful diversionary programs have been, and that proactive states can serve as a model for others to follow suit.

In 2021, North Dakota adopted reforms that included newly created categories for juvenile delinquency and child welfare.

The goal was to provide more clarity on which types of cases needed referral to the courts, and which ones were better suited for the human services system.




get more stories like this via email

A class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of young people with disabilities serving time in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The nonprofit legal advocacy group Equip for Equality suggested state legislation passed in 2006 has largely been ignored. It mandates young people ages 18-22 who are incarcerated take classes to earn a high school diploma.

Olga Pribyl, vice president of the special education clinic at Equip for Equality, said anyone in the age group who was, or currently is, eligible for special education services is affected.

"There's a number of individuals who entered the Illinois Department of Corrections who are within this age range, and who had previously been receiving special education services at their prior educational institution," Pribyl explained. "But once they entered The Department of Corrections, they didn't receive any education."

Pribyl described four years of negotiations on the issue as unsuccessful, which led to the lawsuit being filed against the Illinois Departments of Corrections and Juvenile Justice, and the Illinois State Board of Education.

The group worries young people with disabilities are not getting essential support or accommodation for their schooling while they are incarcerated. It said the consequences are far-reaching in terms of future schooling, vocational training and employment opportunities upon their release.

Pribyl argued getting a diploma can turn young lives around.

"When they exit the system, they're ready to be employed and can be participating members of the community and not go back into the system," Pribyl emphasized. "Statistics show that without an education, the rate of recidivism is a lot higher for these individuals."

Youth in custody can receive GED preparation. Pribyl added her group would like to see them receive high school credit-bearing courses instead. The Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission listed 446 juveniles in the state's 16 detention facilities as of this spring.

The number of youth held in juvenile justice facilities in California and across the U.S. dropped 75% between 2000 and 2022 - according to a new policy brief from the Sentencing Project.

Researchers say it reflects big declines in youth offending and arrests - and lower rates of incarceration during the pandemic.

Josh Rovner, director of youth justice with the Sentencing Project, said this contradicts frequent assertions by politicians and commentators that youth crime is out of control.

"It's surprising to many people in the country that believe that things are always getting worse," said Rovner, "that believe that this generation of kids is worse than any generation that came before it, when the evidence doesn't back that up at all."

California has been on the forefront of juvenile justice reform.

The state closed the last of its youth prisons last year, moving to a county-based model to keep children closer to family and community-based programs.

The state also banned almost all prosecution of children under age 12, and ended the transfer of 14- and 15-year-olds to adult court.

Rovner said youth are much less likely to re-offend when they are spared incarceration - and instead enter programs that emphasize mentoring, family therapy, and restorative justice.

"Some people argued drops in incarceration would only lead to increases in offending," said Rovner. "The opposite happened. In fact, by locking up fewer kids, offending continued to drop. So successes can build upon successes, but there is still so much work to do."

State data show that the number of youth in California juvenile facilities stood at almost 2,800 in 2023 - a dramatic drop from just over 11,000 in 2002.




get more stories like this via email

West Virginia state agencies have failed to collect data on incarcerated youth, according to a new lawsuit filed by the West Virginia NAACP in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County.

Every year, thousands of children appear before a judge and many become entangled in the state's juvenile justice system.

Aleshadye Getachew, senior counsel for Democracy Forward, explained the state passed a law in 2015, mandating agencies to collect data about juvenile justice outcomes to aid policymakers, but she said agencies haven't delivered.

"This data really should have been collected in 2015 when this law was first passed, but it hasn't," Getachew pointed out. "We sent out FOIA requests on behalf of the West Virginia NAACP and what we received was pretty limited."

She added the lack of data is leaving advocates in the dark on whether the state has made progress addressing a crisis of incarcerated youth, particularly those involved in truancy diversion programs and school-related incidents.

According to the state Department of Education, more than 169,000 incidents on school property occurred during the 2022 academic year, with more than 51,000 students referred for discipline.

Loretta Young, president of the West Virginia NAACP, said data is critical for examining racial disparities among students facing harsh penalties, such as suspensions or expulsions, or being referred to law enforcement for minor incidents.

"Because the data collection will lead us to what the problem is, how we possibly can develop community resources along with the school resources, so that children are not going from the school to the pipeline of prison," Young urged.

According to federal data, law enforcement accounted for 82% of all delinquency cases referred to juvenile court in 2019.


get more stories like this via email