ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a concise overview of the history of youth confinement in America, including the creation of juvenile courts and early youth incarceration practices to provide context for the ongoing tension between punitive and rehabilitative approaches. The chapter features three specific outgrowths of the juvenile justice system affecting mass incarceration: the superpredator theory of the 1990s, school discipline and the school-to-prison pipeline, and prosecutorial waivers to the adult system. This chapter also provides statistical insight into how youth confinement rates differ across states and compare with other countries and further examine recent trends in the juvenile justice system including population reductions, pervasive disproportionate minority contact, and the impact of COVID-19. Finally, the authors discuss juvenile justice system reform efforts aimed at reducing mass incarceration of youth that may subsequently reduce incarceration rates in the adult system.
