A Growing Concern
Between 1985 and 2001, the number of youth held in American detention centers each night nearly doubled to 27,000.
This issue of Casey Connects shines a light on the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI). It’s a reform movement sweeping across America with one end goal: Create a safer, fairer and more cost-efficient system for detained youth. Beyond this big-picture effort, readers will learn how conventional detention systems are failing girls and what local sites are doing to engage youth in detention reform. A smaller story celebrates 6 movers and shakers who are advancing Casey’s work.
Introducing the Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI). As a model for detention reform, JDAI proves that it is possible to both reduce the use of secure confinement and preserve public safety. In fact, it’s an approach that’s so successful, it’s being implemented in more than 60 sites across the country at the time of this report.