SJC Exchange Library

Originally posted by Wanda Bertram on 08/25/2025

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi everyone,

I wanted to let you know about the Prison Policy Initiative's newest report, released this morning, which provides the most up-to-date picture of how many youth are detained and committed in the U.S. Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie 2025 explores the conditions facing 31,900 kids today - most of whom are held in youth prisons and jails - and offers a first-of-its-kind data table breaking down youth confinement by offense type in all 50 states.

Our report highlights the striking progress states have made in the last 25 years to reduce the number of youth in confinement by over 70 percent, while noting that the U.S. still locks up kids at a rate more than twice the global average. And we show how the juvenile legal system mirrors the adult system in many alarming ways:

• Severe racial disparities. 47% of boys and 39% of girls in juvenile facilities are Black - a level of disparity that has actually worsened in recent years. And even excluding youth held in Indian country facilities, Indigenous children make up 3% of girls and 2% of boys in juvenile facilities, despite comprising less than 1% of all youth nationally.

• Large numbers of youth held pretrial or for minor offenses. Nearly 9,000 youth today are locked up before they've had a trial, and thousands are in detention for minor, low-level offenses. Select states - such as Indiana, which accounts for almost one-quarter of kids locked up for running away; and Texas and California, which hold 26% of kids confined for technical violations of parole - contribute heavily to this problem.

• Prison-like conditions. While the number of kids in large facilities (holding 100 youth or more) has fallen steeply in the last few years, nearly 4 out of every 5 confined kids are held in youth or adult prisons and jails - an increase since 2017, when 65% of confined youth were held in such places.

The full report is available here: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/youth2025.html

And in case you missed it: Earlier this month, we published a briefing breaking down a new study from researchers at the University of Chicago about staff assaults in youth confinement facilities. The study shows that Black youth and neurodivergent youth report staff assault at disproportionately high rates, underscoring the particular dangers of confinement for these populations.

I hope these resources are useful in your work.

Take care,

Wanda

Prison Policy Initiative