{"id":46553,"date":"2022-02-15T18:16:07","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T23:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/juvenile-justice"},"modified":"2025-06-17T16:26:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T20:26:59","slug":"juvenile-justice","status":"publish","type":"issue","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/juvenile-justice","title":{"rendered":"Juvenile Justice"},"parent":0,"menu_order":111,"template":"","class_list":["post-46553","issue","type-issue","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"featured-image":210745,"intro":"Youth are still developing, so as a result society treats kids and adults differently in several contexts, such as driving and serving in the military. Yet in the criminal justice system, we treat youth as adults.","what-you-need-to-know":[{"highlighted":"$241 vs. $75 ","description":"The average daily cost of incarcerating a young person compared to that of an effective, community-based alternative-to-incarceration program."},{"highlighted":"5","description":"Black youth are incarcerated in state-run youth prisons at five times the rate white youth are."},{"highlighted":"60,000 ","description":"60,000 children are incarcerated in juvenile facilities on any given day."}],"promo":{"description":"","button":"","url":""},"faq":{"description":"","faq-items":null},"featured-stories":null,"latest-stories":null,"whats-at-stake":{"title":"What's at Stake","description":"After decades of punitive \u201ctough-on-crime\u201d responses to youth crime and misbehavior, there has been a perceptible shift in recent years surrounding juvenile justice issues in the United States. Policymakers are slowly returning to the first principles of juvenile justice by recognizing that young people are still developing and should be given opportunities for treatment, rehabilitation, and positive reinforcement. Through advocacy, legislation, and reallocation of resources, a majority of states have successfully expanded community alternatives to jail and prison and significantly reduced the number of children behind bars.\r\n\r\nThe ACLU is committed to challenging the criminalization and incarceration of young people<\/a>\u2014particularly youth from disenfranchised communities. We are promoting positive approaches to school discipline and seeking to dismantle the \u201cschool-to-prison pipeline.\u201d We are working to change laws and policies so that states and local jurisdictions use youth jails and prisons sparingly and instead provide effective community-based services and supports to system-involved young people and their families.\r\n\r\nEnding excessive sentences and extreme punishments is of paramount importance to protect young people in the juvenile justice system. Together with national and state partners, we are committed to ending juvenile life without parole sentences so that no young person is sentenced to die in prison. We are also working to end the use of solitary confinement for all young people in juvenile facilities and in adult jails and prisons."},"actions":"","drupal-id":53,"is_hidden_issue":""},"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Youth are still developing, so as a result society treats kids and adults differently in several contexts, such as driving and serving in the military. 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