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

This report identifies proven, promising, and innovative strategies for identifying funds and using those resources to invest in a robust continuum of care and opportunity, particularly in historically disenfranchised communities in which youth and families may be particularly susceptible to justice system involvement. The strategies put forth in this brief cover four areas: capturing and redirecting savings from reduced youth incarceration and facility closure; repurposing youth facilities and leveraging land value; maximizing existing state and federal funding opportunities; and implementing innovative strategies to fund community investment.

Why the U.S. has seen a collapse in violent youth crime

When the youth crime rate started to drop in the late 1990s, it wasn’t a surprise to law enforcement experts. Crime is cyclical, with spikes and declines spurred by social, political and economic conditions.

But no one expected the large decrease in juvenile crime to linger, or to continue to dip for the next 20 years across a range of offenses — from violent assaults and homicides to minor theft and truancy — with no indication that the trend will be reversed.