Approximately 60,000 youth are currently confined in juvenile detention and correctional facilities in this country, with hundreds of thousands more on probation.[1] The time youth spend in confinement has a significant and often negative impact on their development.[2] Many youth who have been confined face a myriad of challenges when they return home, including difficulty reenrolling in school, finding jobs, and continuing with needed mental health and substance abuse treatment.
To help these youth make a successful transition home, more jurisdictions are recognizing the importance of re-entry planning and aftercare services. “Reentry” is the process of preparing youth who have been in out-of-home placements to make a positive transition from confinement to a peaceful and productive life in their home communities. In order to best help youth flourish, systems need to “think exit at entry”— effective re-entry, in other words, is part of a continuum of care that begins when a young person enters the juvenile justice system and continues with the provision of post-release, reintegrative services, support, and supervision when they return home, often called “aftercare” services.[3]
In this section of the Resource Hub, you’ll find an overview of key issues and reform trends relating to reentry and aftercare. Within the key issues and reform trends sections, you will find helpful links as well as the most recent research, cutting-edge reforms, model policies, links to experts, and toolkits to take action.
Reentry Sections
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Notes
[1] Federal Interagency Reentry Council, “Juvenile Reentry” (June 2014); Sarah Hockenberry, “Juveniles in Residential Placement, 2011” (Washington, DC: United States Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Protection, August 2014).
[2] Federal Interagency Reentry Council, “Juvenile Reentry” (June 2014)
[3] Federal Interagency Reentry Council, “Reentry Myth Buster: On Youth Access to Education upon Reentry“ (undated)