Disparities Persist Among Young People Residing in Juvenile Justice Facilities in 2017

The num­ber and share of young peo­ple in juve­nile deten­tion, cor­rec­tion­al or res­i­den­tial facil­i­ties in the Unit­ed States con­tin­ued to decline through 2017, but that devel­op­ment masks an impor­tant and per­sis­tent prob­lem: cer­tain racial and eth­nic groups are over­rep­re­sent­ed in the juve­nile jus­tice system.

Accord­ing to the fed­er­al resource known as Easy Access to the Cen­sus of Juve­niles in Res­i­den­tial Place­ment (EZA­CJRP), in 2017 — based on a one-day snap­shot — 43,580 peo­ple under age 21 lived in juve­nile deten­tion, cor­rec­tion­al or res­i­den­tial facil­i­ties. This trans­lates to a rate of 138 per 100,000 young peo­ple, a decrease of more than half since 2006 (when the rate was 289 per 100,000 young peo­ple). This decline has been broad based, with reduc­tions in every state between 2006 and 2017, and with every count con­duct­ed dur­ing that peri­od show­ing reduc­tions in every racial and eth­nic cat­e­go­ry com­pared with the pre­vi­ous census.

Yet sig­nif­i­cant dis­par­i­ties exist between young peo­ple in dif­fer­ent racial and eth­nic groups:

• Amer­i­can Indi­an: 752 young peo­ple, a rate of 235 per 100,000
• Asian: 361 young peo­ple, a rate of 19 per 100,000
• Black: 17,841 young peo­ple, a rate of 383 per 100,000
• His­pan­ic: 9,161 young peo­ple, a rate of 118 per 100,000
• White: 14,215 young peo­ple, a rate of 83 per 100,000
• Youth from oth­er groups totaled 1,250, with a rate per 100,000 not available.

These racial dis­par­i­ties have been remark­ably per­sis­tent. In every count since 1997, the rate of liv­ing in juve­nile facil­i­ties has been more than twice as high among Amer­i­can Indi­an youth and four times as high among black youth, as among white youth.

But the data also show that progress is pos­si­ble. For exam­ple, in 2011, His­pan­ic youth were 80% more like­ly than white youth to be liv­ing in juve­nile facil­i­ties. By 2017, that gap had been reduced by near­ly half, with a rate for His­pan­ic youth that was 42% high­er than for white youth.

Although the rate of incar­cer­a­tion of young peo­ple has fall­en con­sis­tent­ly in most states, racial and eth­nic dis­par­i­ties per­sist in every state. In all but six states, black youth are placed in juve­nile jus­tice facil­i­ties at high­er rates than any oth­er pop­u­la­tion (the excep­tions are Min­neso­ta, Nebras­ka, New Hamp­shire, Ore­gon and South Car­oli­na, where Amer­i­can Indi­an young peo­ple are incar­cer­at­ed at a high­er rate, and Mis­sis­sip­pi, where the high­est rate is for His­pan­ic youth).

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion seeks to help build a more effec­tive and equi­table youth jus­tice sys­tem through its Juve­nile Deten­tion Alter­na­tives Ini­tia­tive^® and oth­er juve­nile jus­tice reform efforts so all young peo­ple are able to thrive and grow into respon­si­ble adults, even when they make mis­takes and vio­late the law in seri­ous ways.