Google “disparities in the juvenile system” and you’re likely to land on the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) website with the note: “No information is available for this page.” Earlier this year, the site provided robust data demonstrating that, despite years of reforms, the juvenile legal system reflects deep inequality.
Unfortunately, taking information off a website doesn’t make the inequities go away. The good news is that addressing the problem can pave the way to bold, innovative, and restorative approaches that support young people’s wellbeing and increase community safety.
For over a century, the U.S. has relied heavily on incarceration and family separation – particularly of Black and Brown youth – in our legal system. In the 1800’s, Black youth faced laws that penalized activities like “walking without purpose” and were then forced into convict leasing where they worked for no pay under dangerous and often deadly conditions. When the first juvenile court launched in 1899, it provided few procedural protections for youth but gave broad authority to “reputable citizens” to intervene in children’s lives. In the 1980s, responding to a false threat of rising crime by so-called “super-predators,” states passed harsh legislation increasing penalties in juvenile court and pushing even more young people – especially Black and Brown young people – into the adult criminal legal system.
This history set the stage for our current system, rife with disparities and harsh punishment. Black youth are almost five times more likely to be ordered to youth facilities than their white peers; even as placement rates fell nationally between 2011 and 2021, the disparities increased in many states across the country. Researchers surveying public school students found that Black students are more likely to be stopped and questioned by police by eighth grade even though “delinquent” behaviors are roughly similar across races and ethnicities. The data reflect similar patterns for Indigenous and Latine youth. Once locked up, far too many young people face solitary confinement, strip searches, restraints, physical and sexual abuse, and inadequate education and programming.
The Constitution protects young people from the worst abuses: it guarantees a right to counsel in court, for example, and prohibits the harshest sentences and most abusive conditions of confinement for teenagers. Even these protections may be under threat in the current legal and political environment. And they fail to create the healing and restoration young people deserve.
Over the past few years, supported by my role as an Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity, I had the opportunity to collaborate with a group of transformative leaders – individuals incarcerated as children or who had family members incarcerated as children, who have now dedicated themselves to advocating for change. We worked to imagine a different approach to youth justice, which we describe in our new report, Weaving Life and Law to Transform Youth Justice. Recognizing that our legal system harms youth and pulls families and communities apart, we set forth a different vision. We propose confronting structural inequity, building up communities rather than systems, reinforcing relationships and connections, and centering on healing and restoration.
These ideas may sound pie-in-the-sky, but research on what works for young people reinforces these approaches. While traditional criminal and juvenile legal systems focus on punishment for rule-breaking, restorative justice focuses instead on who was harmed, what they need to heal, and how to get there. These practices may also look at the root causes of the harm, including community and system accountability. Young people who participate are significantly less likely to recidivate than those facing traditional prosecution, and those who were harmed tend to be more satisfied than those who appear in court.
In the midst of an unprecedented attack on civil rights, all hope is not lost. In fact, around the country, those directly impacted by our “justice” system are leading transformative change, especially at the local and state levels. And lawyers are developing innovative strategies, for example by pushing the bounds of state constitutional law to challenge cruel punishment. As we enter a new and challenging federal legal landscape, our report highlights how the shared vision and intersecting strategies of lawyers and community leaders can provide us with powerful tools to fight for the transformation young people deserve.
