A Tale of Two Jurisdictions: Youth Crime and Detention Rates in Maryland & the District of Columbia

From the introduction:

“Building Blocks for Youth, a national initiative to promote a fair and effective youth justice system, commissioned this report to determine whether it is possible to reduce the number of youth in secure detention and place young people who have gotten in trouble with the law in community programs, without incurring an increase in juvenile crime. Our analysis concentrated on two neighboring jurisdictions – Washington, D.C. and Maryland – which have struggled to manage their juvenile detention populations during the 1990’s. Building Blocks also focused on these jurisdictions because of their high rates of disproportionate minority confinement.”