On any given day, approximately 60,000 youth are 

confined in juvenile detention and correctional facilities 

and hundreds of thousands more are on probation. 

This contact with the juvenile justice system has a 

significant impact on adolescents’ development and 

their prospects for long-term success. As a result, 

juvenile reentry encompasses more than just aftercare 

for youth returning to the community from secure 

confinement, but is also a process that begins the 

moment youth come into contact with the juvenile 

justice system, helping them transition from system 

supervision to a crime-free, productive adulthood. 

Youth typically face a host of challenges to making 

this transition successful, including receiving the 

necessary support from their families, peers, and 

communities; enrolling in an appropriate educational 

and/or vocational setting; maintaining a continuity 

of treatment for mental health and/or substance use 

disorders; and transitioning to adulthood and economic independence. Jurisdictions are more likely to 

reduce reoffending and improve other key outcomes 

for youth by adopting and effectively implementing 

the integrated set of policies and practices demonstrated by research as effective in helping youth to 

overcome these challenges. The Interagency Juvenile 

Reentry Committee is committed to supporting 

jurisdictions and the field at large to improve existing 

reentry efforts as well as the coordination and 

effectiveness of federal initiatives accordingly.

• The Department of Justice’s most recent Second

Chance Act solicitations are designed to

maximize the impact of these grants by placing

a greater emphasis on grantees’ planning and

implementing reentry improvement initiatives as

well as comprehensive reentry systems reforms,

and on the adoption, integration, and effective

implementation of the policies and practices that

research has demonstrated reduce reoffending.

• The Department of Labor supported a series of grant

programs designed to provide job training and

employment services for youth involved with the

juvenile justice system, as well as for young adults

who were formerly incarcerated. These grant

programs include High-Poverty, High-Crime Communities, Training and Service Learning; Face Forward; 

and Characteristics Common to Female Ex-Offenders. 

• The Attorney General and Secretary of Education

jointly issued a letter focused on the need to provide

high-quality educational opportunities to youth who

are confined. The letter previews a guide to building

high-quality educational programs in confinement 

facilities and lists the fundamental principles that 

will be developed within the guide. These principles 

are in the areas of institutional climate, resources, 

staffing, instruction, and transitional supports. 

• The Department of Education and the Department

of Health and Human Services published Reentry

MythBusters on correctional education and Medicaid

eligibility for youth in confinement. The MythBusters

are designed to clarify key existing federal policies

that impact the confinement and successful reentry

of youth.

• The Department of Education hosted a Summit on

Education in Correctional Facilities. After the Summit,

key stakeholders engaged in eight listening sessions

across the country to learn more about the challenges

of providing quality correctional and reentry education

and career/technical training for youth. Based on

the feedback provided by summit participants, an

Juvenile 

Reentry

Accomplishments to Date

June 2014

Snapshot
Promote States’ Efforts to Track Youth Outcomes 

Reentry Council agencies will provide more robust 

standards and guidance on recidivism and other key 

youth outcomes that jurisdictions should track, and 

will help increase the capacity of jurisdictions to collect,

analyze, report, and use this data to guide their reentry 

initiatives. 

Highlight “What Works” to Reduce Recidivism 

and Improve Youth Outcomes

Reentry Council agencies will promote the core strategies

proven by research to improve juvenile reentry outcomes, 

and provide tools to help jurisdictions to use these 

strategies to inform and effectively implement their 

own reentry policies and practices. 

Address Reentry Knowledge and Resource 

Coordination Gaps

Reentry Council agencies will identify significant 

knowledge and resource coordination gaps that are 

impeding efforts to reduce recidivism and improve 

key youth reentry outcomes, and will collaboratively 

design and test research-based practice models to

address these gaps. 

Strengthen Policy and Funding Coordination 

Reentry Council agencies will enhance their commitment

to interagency coordination through joint funding 

initiatives that address priority reentry reform needs. 

As one example, the Departments of Education and 

Justice are partnering to fund a demonstration program 

to improve correctional education and post-release 

educational/vocational outcomes for juveniles. 

Reentry Council

http://csgjusticecenter.org/nrrc/projects/firc/

Reentry MythBusters

http://csgjusticecenter.org/nrrc/projects/mythbusters/

National Reentry Resource Center—Juvenile 

Reentry

http://csgjusticecenter.org/youth/juvenile-reentry/

Five Emerging Practices in Juvenile Reentry

http://csgjusticecenter.org/youth/posts/fiveemerging-practices-in-juvenile-reentry/

Crimesolutions.gov—Juvenile Justice

http://www.crimesolutions.gov/TopicDetails.aspx?

ID=5 

Key Resources (Juvenile Reentry)

Agenda Moving Forward

extensive set of recommendations was published 

for improving youth correctional and reentry education. 

• The Office of Justice Programs hosted the Third 

Annual Summit on Youth Violence Prevention. 

Representatives from the 10 cities in the National

Forum on Youth Violence Prevention attended 

sessions designed to help participants advance a 

comprehensive, evidence-based approach to reducing 

youth violence, including upon returning to the 

community after confinement.