"On paper, that's a single national system. In reality, whether a child ends up behind bars looks less like a question of crime - and more like a question of geography. A new analysis from Suzuki Law Offices, based on the latest federal placement data from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), lays out just how uneven youth incarceration is across the country. Some states lock up thousands of children. Others incarcerate only a handful."
"Texas, in particular, stands out. The state not only leads the country in total youth confinement, it mirrors its broader incarceration posture: Suzuki notes Texas' overall incarceration rate (adults plus juveniles) now exceeds that of every democratic nation in the world. The study also highlights that Texas detained 66 children aged 12 or younger last year - one of the highest totals in the country."
In 2023, 29,314 juveniles were held in residential facilities across the United States. Juvenile confinement varies dramatically across states, reflecting geography and policy rather than uniform national practice. The national juvenile placement rate averages 87 per 100,000 youth, but that average conceals extreme divergence between states. Ten states account for more than half of all confined juveniles nationwide. Texas confined 2,955 juveniles in 2023 while Vermont confined six, making a child in Texas nearly 500 times more likely to be incarcerated than a child in Vermont. Some high-incarceration states also rely heavily on pretrial detention, increasing time behind bars while cases await resolution.
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