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Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform

This publication series provides practical information for understanding and implementing juvenile detention reform, based on the innovative policies and practices developed by jurisdictions participating in the Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI). Each guide offers detailed descriptions of specific detention reform strategies, along with lessons learned and technical assistance resources.

See all JDAI resources.

Overview: Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform, The JDAI Story

Th is publication provides an overview of Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI), a multi-million dollar, five year, five-site experiment aimed to streamline and rationalize local juvenile detention systems.  more >>

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1. Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform: Planning for Juvenile Detention Reforms - A Structured Approach

This planning approach is designed to help jurisdictions gain an accurate understanding of their own detention policies, practices, and problems. Its structured planning model has been tested and refined at various sites over a five-year period, and it makes reference to a variety of solutions to juvenile detention problems.  more >>

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2. Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform: Collaboration and Leadership in Juvenile Detention Reform

This report addresses the governance and leadership prerequisites for implementing detention reform strategies effectively. It discusses collaboration principles that emerged from the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI), examines key issues in building and sustaining collaboration and collaborative structures, and covers possible leadership dilemmas. It also contains some lessons learned by the JDAI sites.  more >>

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3. Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform: Controlling the Front Gates - Effective Admissions Policies and Practices

This report reviews core principles central to the design and implementation of new admissions practices in the juvenile justice system. It presents discussions of the essential elements of a structured, objective approach, relying on the experiences of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI).  more >>

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4. Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform: Consider the Alternatives - Planning and Implementing Detention Alternatives

This report examines the experiences of and lessons learned by the Casey Foundation's Juvenile Justice Alternatives Initiative sites regarding the development of effective alternatives to secure detention. This report details how each site expanded or enhanced its program repertoire as part of its detentions system reform efforts.  more >>

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5. Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform: Reducing Unnecessary Delay - Innovations in Case Processing- Innovations in Case Processing

This report describes how the lengths of stay of detained juveniles were reduced by changing case processing procedures. It includes a detailed discussion of specific points in processing a delinquency case where unnecessary delay may occur and examples of how sites in the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative reduced delay in each instance.  more >>

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6. Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform: Improving Conditions of Confinement in Secure Juvenile Detention Centers

This report presents a discussion of what was learned from the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) about improving and maintaining safe, humane institutions. Attention is given to the impact of inadequate conditions. It also offers guiding principles, based on JDAI, for improving institutional conditions, developing and conducting an assessment, improving practices, and maintaining ongoing assessment.  more >>

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7. Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform: By The Numbers—The Role of Data and Information in Detention Reform

This report distinguishes between gathering and using data for planning and assessment and developing information systems that support daily operations. It focuses on how smaller interim steps can provide significant benefits quickly and relatively inexpensively. It summarizes lessons from the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative and describes how others can get started.  more >>

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8. Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform: Reducing Racial Disparities in Juvenile Detention

This report examines the overrepresentation of minorities in the juvenile justice system, as well as reviews attempts by various sites in the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) to reduce the number of minority youth being detained.    more >>

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9. Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform: Special Detention Cases- Strategies for Handling Difficult Populations

This report discusses warrant cases, probation violators, and post-adjudication detention. It provides strategies and solutions used in the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative and other jurisdictions to reduce unnecessary detention in these special cases.  more >>

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11. Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform: Promoting and Sustaining Detention Reforms

This report explores how the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) has promoted and sustained detention reform across the nation. It covers how leaders gathered support, how stakeholders clarified their agenda, and how sites used communications strategies to gain support. The report also addresses site strategies for reform, simple steps toward reform, and arguments for the cost-effectiveness of reform.  more >>

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12. Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform: Replicating Detention Reform - Lessons from the Florida Detention Initiative

This report describes Florida’s efforts to replicate Broward County’s reforms statewide. It identifies reasons why the Broward Dentention Initiative was successful in its reform and how attempts to go to scale were stymied by a changing political environment. It discusses outcomes and lessons from the resulting state-wide Florida Detention Initiative. more >>

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13. Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform—Detention Reform and Girls: Challenges and Solutions

This report examines the complex personal and social backdrop for girls in the delinquency system and looks at how girls are tracked at various key points in the juvenile justice process. By mapping how girls end up in the system, this report provides recommendations for gender-responsive detention reform.    more >>

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14. Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform: Beyond Detention -- System Transformation Through Juvenile Detention Reform

This report is book #14 in the Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) Pathways series on juvenile detention reform. It documents the ways in which detention reforms in general – and JDAI’s comprehensive reform model in particular -- stimulate and support a broad array of other juvenile justice system improvements. more >>

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15. Pathways to Juvenile Justice Reform: Detention Reform in Rural Areas

This report details a variety of special techniques, tactics, and strategies that can help rural areas accomplish detention reform effectively. It includes profiles of two promising rural detention reform efforts (in Illinois and Oregon); and a summary of key lessons. more >>

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