Make the case for significantly expanding the use of diversion options that steer young people away from the juvenile justice system entirely when public safety is not at stake.
Promote the transformation of juvenile probation into a focused intervention that promotes personal growth, positive behavior change and long-term success for youth who pose significant risks for serious offending.
Demonstrating that state and local governments can safely and significantly reduce confinement — especially for youth of color — while improving youth well-being.
Support jurisdictions partnering with young people, families and communities to develop community-based options for youth who are on a downward spiral toward confinement.
Advance principles to transform care for youth in custody, while continuing to push for ending the youth prison model.
Introduce positive, healing partnerships between young people and specially trained adult mentors, called credible messengers, who have lived through similar experiences.
Provide technical assistance and other resources to states, counties and cities targeted to local needs and conditions.
Provide training and technical assistance to practitioners.
Publish and distribute reports, recommendations and videos designed to inform jurisdictions and other funders interested in pursuing reform.
Fund opportunities for legislators, practitioners, community-based organizations and national experts to learn from one another about promising practices.
The Foundation’s pilot of deep-end reform produced early evidence that jurisdictions can safely reduce their reliance on out-of-home placement. Collectively, the pilot sites confined at least 50% fewer young people in 2018 than in their baseline years, without compromising public safety.
The deep-end pilot sites outpaced reductions in confinement over the same period at the national level, providing early evidence that of transformational change in youth justice.
Consistent with the Foundation’s racial equity goals, deep-end sites have significantly narrowed the gap between the experiences of African American and white youth in the juvenile justice system.
Virginia is funding community-based alternatives to incarceration, including a continuum of nonresidential programs and services across the state, with cost savings recovered from the closing of a 258-bed correctional center and 40-bed reception and diagnostic center, according to a 2019 report. Casey provided the state with technical assistance for its five-prong reform strategy.
Chatham County, Georgia — home to Savannah — implemented efforts across local agencies to proactively address families’ needs and keep young people out of court.
New Jersey’s Juvenile Justice Commission introduced healing circles inside some of its juvenile facilities as a way to elevate care for chronically traumatized youth in custody. This approach partnered credible messengers with staff to facilitate supportive conversations with youth engaged in the most serious and violent behavior to address their trauma. As a result, aggressive incidents inside the secure facilities declined by 49%.
We work with organizations committed to reducing youth incarceration through policies, practices and partnerships between public systems and community-based organizations:
