Transforming Juvenile Justice Through Strategic Financing

Abstract

The nation's juvenile justice systems are responsible for managing youth who violate the law. These systems rely on complex financial structures and diverse funding sources shaped by the interplay of policies at the federal, state and local level. While state and local government represent the backbone of financial support to juvenile justice systems, additional funding sources — such as federal dollars, fines and fees and philanthropic contributions — also play a role.The diversity and complexity of this landscape makes it difficult to study how different structures support — or fail to support — a specific community's juvenile justice goals. This lack of clarity also hinders local opportunities to strategize and allocate resources effectively, improve program quality and achieve safe communities. In pursuit of a clearer picture, the Annie E. Casey Foundation funded Child Trends to conduct a mixed-methods study of juvenile justice systems' financing across select states and localities.Child Trends leveraged its 13 years of experience conducting the Child Welfare Financing Survey to develop a juvenile justice financing survey. This survey — administered from January 2022 to April 2023 and covering state fiscal year 2019 — covered seven states and 11 localities. It sought to better understand how individual juvenile justice systems are run and financed, what expenditures they accrue, and where they stand with savings and reinvestment practices