Promoting a New Direction for Youth Justice: Strategies to Fund a Community-Based Continuum of Care and Opportunity

This Urban Institute study illustrates the financial costs and long-term effects of youth incarceration and suggests a new model to prevent and address illegal actions by youth. This new model calls for a continuum-based approach that includes restorative justice programming, family counseling and mentoring support, and interventions to address substance abuse. The brief reviews four areas to create this continuum, including: capturing and reinvesting savings resulting from youth detention facilities closures; repurposing youth detention facilities; maximizing existing state and federal funding sources; and identifying innovative funding strategies for opportunities for youth and their families.