Report: National Human Services Assembly’s Roadmap for Reforming Youth Justice

Posted by National Human Services Assembly on September 15, 2020

The National Human Services Assembly (NHSA), in light of the George Floyd killing and the Covid 19 pandemic, is re-releasing our 2017 publication, Beyond Bars: Keeping Young People Safe at Home and Out of Youth Prisons, a roadmap for reform that calls on state and local policymakers, juvenile justice administrators, police and judges to end the practice of youth incarceration and instead invest in community-based alternatives.

This report is more relevant today than ever before as policy makers and legislatures are looking to develop alternatives to policing, probation, youth detention, youth prison and parole.

Community safety should be defined by more than law enforcement and carrots and sticks; it’s about all the things that characterize safe neighborhoods, like access to good schools and jobs, opportunities to learn, grow, develop, and play in safe environments.

The array of services available to justice-involved young people should exist at every point in the justice system, from an alternative to arrest to an alternative to out-of-home placement and aftercare that can hasten return home from a placement.

Read the report: https://www.nationalassembly.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/BeyondBars.pdf