By — Nicole Ellis Nicole Ellis By — Tim McPhillips Tim McPhillips By — Casey Kuhn Casey Kuhn Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/how-the-top-u-s-official-for-incarcerated-youth-sees-the-challenges-for-kids-in-the-justice-system Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter How the top U.S. official for incarcerated youth sees the challenges for kids in the justice system Nation Apr 4, 2023 11:58 AM EDT The number of young Americans in juvenile detention dropped by 77 percent over the last two decades, from more than 100,000 to just over 25,000, according to federal data published late last year. Despite this huge reduction due to changing laws and policies, experts say young people still face stubborn barriers that make it more difficult to successfully reenter society after their release from incarceration. “Part of the whole initiation of the juvenile court system more than 100 years ago was to provide a path forward for young people to be rehabilitated,” said Liz Ryan, administrator of the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. In 2014, Ryan founded the Youth First Initiative, a national advocacy campaign that helped close youth prisons in six states and redirected more than $50 million to community-based alternatives to incarceration. She said her previous work outside the Biden administration informs her priority to serve young people at home and in their communities. Ryan spoke with the PBS NewsHour’s digital anchor, Nicole Ellis about the persistent challenges stacked against incarcerated youth. Watch the conversation in the player above. The difficulty of getting a minor’s criminal record expunged or sealed is one of those hurdles, according to Ryan, who explained that a clean record is integral to a young person’s ability to move through life unhindered by stigma. “Something that comes up in every single conversation with young people is that they need employment,” Ryan said. According to a 2018 analysis from the nonprofit advocacy organization Juvenile Law Center, people with criminal records have a harder time getting hired – 50 percent of employers are less likely to call or extend a job offer to an applicant with a record. But the odds are even worse for people of color who have been incarcerated. “On average, youth who spent time in juvenile facilities were unemployed for three weeks per year, but Black youth were unemployed for five weeks per year,” the Juvenile Law Center said in a publication. A lack of employment opportunity post-incarceration can compound the other economic stressors that accumulate for young incarcerated people and their families. While fees and fines often vary state to state, costs might include payment for out-of-home detention stays or restitution for damages related to their crimes. Unpaid debts can keep young people in detention, unable to clear their records, or on extended probation. “Young people are racking up enormous fees and enormous fines while they’re in the justice system, while they’re incarcerated. And that really hinders their ability to move forward when they’ve got enormous debt,” Ryan said. According to the Juvenile Law Center, “fines and fees actually increase recidivism. Research shows young people with justice-related debts are more likely to re-offend than their debt-free peers, and the likelihood of re-offending increases as the fines and fees raise.” Ryan said that in her current role, she plans to continue to invest more resources into culturally competent, community-based services in hopes of relieving state and local municipalities from “spending the most amount of their resources on a strategy that produces the worst outcomes,” i.e. incarceration. When it comes to advice for young people leaving detention or correctional facilities, Ryan advises that it’s critical “to get reconnected right away to their families, to their communities, to community-based supports, to educational opportunities and employment opportunities,” and that “we shouldn’t wait until the day that a young person leaves a facility to make that happen. We need to start the second a young person enters a facility because those young people are going to come home, and we need to make sure they’re fully prepared to come home and that they’re being set up for success.” By — Nicole Ellis Nicole Ellis Nicole Ellis is PBS NewsHour's digital anchor where she hosts pre- and post-shows and breaking news live streams on digital platforms and serves as a correspondent for the nightly broadcast. Ellis joined the NewsHour from The Washington Post, where she was an Emmy nominated on-air reporter and anchor covering social issues and breaking news. In this role, she hosted, produced, and directed original documentaries and breaking news videos for The Post’s website, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Facebook and Twitch, earning a National Outstanding Breaking News Emmy Nomination for her coverage of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Ellis created and hosted The Post’s first original documentary series, “Should I freeze my eggs?,” in which she explores her own fertility and received the 2019 Digiday Publishers Award. She also created and hosted the Webby Award-winning news literacy series “The New Normal,” the most viewed video series in the history of The Washington Post’s women’s vertical, The Lily. She is the author of “We Go High,” a non-fiction self-help-by-proxy book on overcoming adversity publishing in 2022, and host of Critical Conversations on BookClub, an author-led book club platform. Prior to that, Ellis was a part of the production team for the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning series, CNN Heroes. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Human Rights from Columbia University, as well as a Master’s in Journalism from Columbia Journalism School. By — Tim McPhillips Tim McPhillips @timmcphillips3 By — Casey Kuhn Casey Kuhn Casey is a producer for NewsHour's digital video team. She has won several awards for her work in broadcast journalism, including a national Edward R. Murrow award. @caseyatthedesk
The number of young Americans in juvenile detention dropped by 77 percent over the last two decades, from more than 100,000 to just over 25,000, according to federal data published late last year. Despite this huge reduction due to changing laws and policies, experts say young people still face stubborn barriers that make it more difficult to successfully reenter society after their release from incarceration. “Part of the whole initiation of the juvenile court system more than 100 years ago was to provide a path forward for young people to be rehabilitated,” said Liz Ryan, administrator of the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. In 2014, Ryan founded the Youth First Initiative, a national advocacy campaign that helped close youth prisons in six states and redirected more than $50 million to community-based alternatives to incarceration. She said her previous work outside the Biden administration informs her priority to serve young people at home and in their communities. Ryan spoke with the PBS NewsHour’s digital anchor, Nicole Ellis about the persistent challenges stacked against incarcerated youth. Watch the conversation in the player above. The difficulty of getting a minor’s criminal record expunged or sealed is one of those hurdles, according to Ryan, who explained that a clean record is integral to a young person’s ability to move through life unhindered by stigma. “Something that comes up in every single conversation with young people is that they need employment,” Ryan said. According to a 2018 analysis from the nonprofit advocacy organization Juvenile Law Center, people with criminal records have a harder time getting hired – 50 percent of employers are less likely to call or extend a job offer to an applicant with a record. But the odds are even worse for people of color who have been incarcerated. “On average, youth who spent time in juvenile facilities were unemployed for three weeks per year, but Black youth were unemployed for five weeks per year,” the Juvenile Law Center said in a publication. A lack of employment opportunity post-incarceration can compound the other economic stressors that accumulate for young incarcerated people and their families. While fees and fines often vary state to state, costs might include payment for out-of-home detention stays or restitution for damages related to their crimes. Unpaid debts can keep young people in detention, unable to clear their records, or on extended probation. “Young people are racking up enormous fees and enormous fines while they’re in the justice system, while they’re incarcerated. And that really hinders their ability to move forward when they’ve got enormous debt,” Ryan said. According to the Juvenile Law Center, “fines and fees actually increase recidivism. Research shows young people with justice-related debts are more likely to re-offend than their debt-free peers, and the likelihood of re-offending increases as the fines and fees raise.” Ryan said that in her current role, she plans to continue to invest more resources into culturally competent, community-based services in hopes of relieving state and local municipalities from “spending the most amount of their resources on a strategy that produces the worst outcomes,” i.e. incarceration. When it comes to advice for young people leaving detention or correctional facilities, Ryan advises that it’s critical “to get reconnected right away to their families, to their communities, to community-based supports, to educational opportunities and employment opportunities,” and that “we shouldn’t wait until the day that a young person leaves a facility to make that happen. We need to start the second a young person enters a facility because those young people are going to come home, and we need to make sure they’re fully prepared to come home and that they’re being set up for success.”