Constantine reveals $4 million proposed budget to fund programs aimed at helping achieve his goal of 'zero youth detention.'

Major portions of San Diego’s juvenile detention facilities sit empty. And it’s not just San Diego. Falling crime rates, combined with more money for prevention and a changing juvenile justice culture, have virtually emptied California’s juvenile halls.

Children under 13 who are accused of crimes will no longer be locked up in Cook County.

Under a law passed unanimously Wednesday by the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the county will find alternatives to detaining kids arrested in the county.

Three new reports and interviews with former staff document overcrowding and severe staffing shortages at the Youth Study Center.

Under the settlement, the county also will pay $240,000 to four juveniles who were held in solitary confinement at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.

Concluding that they do more harm than good, Orleans Parish Juvenile Court has abolished court fees for juvenile delinquents.

The DMC sub-committee found that the failure to appear in court rate for youth of color was double that of white youths, a factor that contributed to the lower rate of reduction in detentions for youth of color. In fact, 66 percent of the youth in detention for failure to appear over a two years period were youths of color. The county juvenile services office has since revised that process to make it easier for youths to appear in court, thereby “dramatically” reducing numbers.