The Number of Youth in Juvenile Detention in California Has Quietly Plummeted
Originally posted in the Voice of San Diego.
The Voice of San Diego quotes CJCJ’s Senior Research Fellow Mike Males in an article on California’s steadily declining youth crime and emptying juvenile justice facilities.
From the article:
But even in the peak days of the super predator mentality, the trends that would empty out juvenile halls began to emerge. Most importantly, juvenile crime started to decrease in the mid-‘90s and still hasn’t stopped. Felonies, misdemeanors and minor infractions like curfew violation continue to tumble. Researchers don’t fully understand this trend, said Mike Males a fellow at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. College enrollment has steadily increased, as dropout rates have gone down, he said.