Community-Based Alternatives to
Youth Incarceration
Melissa M. Labriola, Samuel Peterson, Dulani Woods, Michael J. D. Vermeer,
Brian A. Jackson
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
RESULTS
Family Support and Equity Concerns
• Conduct an analysis of the major decision points in
the legal system, making sure to consider common
demographic dimensions.
• Examine the impact of risk tools and whether they
are continuing to propagate structural bias.
• Conduct research on the best approaches for family
engagement, preparedness, and advocacy through-
out the process (including reentry planning).
Serious Youth Offending and High-Risk, High-Needs
Youth
• Identify, develop, and promote the application of
effective change strategies and best practices to
improve outcomes for youth held in facilities.
• Develop a research strategy to identify community-
based interventions (e.g., trauma-informed and
community-relevant programs) and gaps in services
that are effective in keeping youth healthy and safe
in their communities after release.
Systems and Creating a Road Map for Reform
• Analyze barriers to working with government and
nongovernment funding organizations (i.e., procure-
ment, contracting, and reporting processes), and
identify concrete strategies for making those pro-
cesses easier for organizations with limited capacity.
• Develop and prioritize approaches to holistic
community improvements (e.g., resource mapping,
incubator organizations, reinvestment funds).
SELECTED PRIORITY NEEDS
Relative to the late 1990s, the juvenile justice system nation-
ally has seen drastic reductions in the number of cases referred,
petitioned, adjudicated, and—ultimately—resulting in an
individual being placed in a residential facility. e National
Center for Juvenile Justice estimates that there was a 50-percent
reduction in residential placement facilities from 2000 to 2019,
with a 74-percent reduction in large facilities from 1997 to
2019 (Puzzanchera, Hockenberry, and Sickmund, 2022). Given
the scale of this decline, along with eorts to reduce out-of-
home placements and increase community-based alternatives,
the time is ripe to explore the challenges and opportunities
associated with closing secure juvenile residential facilities and
improving alternatives to youth incarceration.
Responding to this need, RAND, on behalf of the National
Institute of Justice, hosted a workshop in June 2023 as part of
the Priority Criminal Justice Needs Initiative. e workshop
brought together a group of juvenile justice system adminis-
trators, researchers, judges, and policy experts to identify and
prioritize the needs that, if addressed, would have the greatest
impact on closing secure juvenile facilities and improving alter-
natives to youth incarceration.
e workshop produced 30 needs that participants identied
and prioritized for their importance and their probability of
success. e needs were sorted using the following themes,
though some needs cut across multiple themes:
• family support and equity concerns
• serious youth oending and high-risk, high-needs youth
• systems and creating a road map for reform
• politics, buy-in, and voice
• funding for alternatives and community capacity.
