Resource: Reforming Juvenile Delinquency Treatment to Enhance Rehabilitation, Personal Accountability, and Public Safety

The time may be ripe for meaningful reform after the spate of “get tough” legislation that drove juvenile justice policy in the 1990s. The nation’s violent juvenile crime rate has fallen steadily since 1994, evidently diminishing immediate public pressure for harsh punishment at the expense of rehabilitation. At the same time, Justice Department activism under CRIPA has exposed the infected underbelly of juvenile corrections and spurred calls for reform.