Why Youth Incarceration Fails

 Sentencing Project - Though the number of youth confined nationwide has declined significantly over the past two decades, our country still incarcerates far too many young people. It does so despite overwhelming evidence showing that incarceration is an ineffective strategy for steering youth away from delinquent behavior and that high rates of youth incarceration do not improve public safety.... This assessment finds that the sizable drop in juvenile facility populations since 2000 is due largely to a substantial decline in youth arrests nationwide, not to any shift toward other approaches by juvenile courts or corrections agencies once youth enter the justice system. Most youth who are incarcerated in juvenile facilities are not charged with serious violent offenses, yet the United States continues to confine youth at many times the rates of other nations. And it continues to inflict the harms of incarceration disproportionately on black youth and other youth of color – despite well-established alternatives that produce better outcomes for youth and community safety.