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• After two decades of juvenile justice reform, the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Reform Initiative (JDAI) has released a report documenting its impressive progress. (I'll link to the report when I get hold of it.)

One of the more important developments in the juvenile justice system (as well as the criminal justice system) of the last few decades has been the adoption of assessment tools to classify youth by their risk to reoffend.
This is critical, since research has shown that teens (and adults) are more likely to return to the justice system the more contact they have with it; as a result, interventions need to be different depending upon whether youth are classified as low-, medium-, or high-risk. (In its most simplest form, this means keeping lower-risk kids out of detention. While this can be difficult for communities to do, it seems to result in lower incidence of crime.)

• Interested in what restorative justice looks like when it's implemented in juvenile court? Here's a long article about two restorative justice programs in Oakland: one uses a peer court to address low-level offenders; the other works with kids leaving detention after many months.
• Want data on the well-being of kids in your state? Want to know how your state ranks compared with others? Check out the KIDS COUNT Data Center just launched by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which also released its KIDS COUNT Databook for 2009.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has released a new, fourth edition of its Disproportionate Minority Contact Technical Assistance Manual. In it, you can find:

[This post was written by Ashley Edwards, Kelly Graves, and Claretta Witherspoon, of the Reclaiming Futures site in Guilford County, NC.]
North Carolina’s Action for Children recently released the 2009 Youth Delinquency Prevention Report Card.  The release of these data will inform service delivery and outreach to adolescents throughout the state, and can be instrumental in helping us advocate for continued investment and expansion of the Reclaiming Futures program. 

• Children and Juvenile Justice: Proposals for Improvements is the title of a new report from the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights. (If that interests you, you might also want to see this 2007 summary of trends in juvenile justice systems across 15 countries.)
• 13 Myths and Facts about Drug Abuse and Treatment - an excellent short document from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

Last March, Missouri's successful juvenile justice reform efforts (the so-called "Missouri Model") hit the national headlines because of their focus on treatment and rehabilitation vs. punishment, offering alternatives to incarceration, and working with teens in small groups outside of detention centers.
If you want to see the program for yourself, the Ash Institute at Harvard now has an inspiring 29-minute video describing Missouri's innovative innovative juvenile justice system. Check it out. 

• Teens in the juvenile justice system are more likely to commit crimes as adults because delinquent behavior is "contagious", according to a 20-year research project in Canada. The solutions? More investments in prevention programs for pre-adolescents, and ending the practice of grouping delinquent youth together in services designed to help them. (No advice on how to accomplish the latter item.)
  • UPDATE Feb. 2, 2011: A&E's recent reality TV show, "Beyond Scared Straight," actually increases teens' contact with adult prison inmates in an attempt to terrify them into “going straight." Maybe the producer's didn't read the above study, which indicates that contact with the justice system increases teen recidivism. Check out these facts about the program from the Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ).

Drastic cuts to the juvenile justice system in South Carolina are reversing significant gains made by reforms there, according to a New York Times story (see left for a still from the accompanying video, "Beyond the Fence.")
The Center for the Study of Social Policy's blog calls cuts to juvenile justice programs like these "shortsighted," because they avoid future costs and keep the community safer.
(UPDATE: Interestingly enough, budget woes seem to be driving states to adopt alternatives to incarceration -- including drug courts -- in the adult justice system.)
But what do you think? Leave a comment.