Last month, we shared some of the ways that youth in custody and the staff who serve them are more vulnerable to COVID-19. We also urged Wisconsin officials and administrators to follow guidelines from Youth Correctional Leaders for Justice to reduce the risk of infection in juvenile detention facilities. The guidelines included best practice for prevention and infection control. Included were two recommendations specific to youth in custody: strictly limiting new admissions and safely releasing youth who have a health condition and are doing well. These guidelines have been implemented in secure juvenile settings across the state.

Today, we can report that the numbers of Wisconsin youth in confinement have declined significantly. The number of youth at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake facilities is below 90 for the first time in two decades. The Annie E. Casey Foundation published the results of a survey of juvenile justice agencies in 30 states. The survey found that “the number of young people in local secure detention centers fell by 24% in March 2020, the month during which the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the United States.” Notably, this one-month decline is equal to the entire decline over the past seven years.  

Furthermore, this historic reduction is not the result of new facilities or new legislation or new funding sources but, rather, a reflection of the effort by many state agencies to comply with the national recommendations to reduce the risk posed by COVID-19 to confined youth. Moreover, it’s the really encouraging result of necessary and increased collaboration, information sharing and communication between national, state and local officials, administrators and advocates. 

It’s critical to acknowledge this significant positive change amidst the grave realities of this pandemic. In addition, Wisconsin’s recent progress in the reduction of youth in Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake could not have happened without the foundation of the previous several years of bipartisan support and administrative leadership around juvenile justice in the state. The harm to children in youth prisons and the subsequent passage of Act 185 have brought to the forefront the need for transparency, trauma informed care, data analysis, resources, and leadership, as the guideposts for a new Wisconsin Model of Juvenile Justice.  

This unimaginable crisis has shown that the right leadership and relationships, both inside and outside the youth justice system, are currently in place to bring public safety, accountability and public health into alignment thus reducing the need for confinement.  

More importantly, it has demonstrated that reducing the number of youth in custody can be done safely and collaboratively. The success in complying with recommendations to reduce risk of COVID-19 across detention facilities and prisons boils down to a few key components: 

Increased Collaboration:  The increase in collaboration between system partners reached the level needed to review and coordinate cases effectively. In other words, articulating the common goal, identifying and bringing together those key people from the outset around that goal results in quicker action and execution. 

Innovation: Our current youth justice system is often characterized as siloed and outdated. However, this current crisis out of pure necessity has produced levels of innovation and creativity that were not previously acted upon. It has demonstrated that the administrative authority to change, create and implement policies that improve health and wellbeing without risking public safety are present. In other words, when the needs of youth are central instead of the mistakes they have made in the past when their needs were arguably unmet- the system can be very resourceful in finding placements and supports to prevent further harm.

Use of Confinement for Public Safety: When confinement is used more sparingly for the youth who pose a clear and imminent public safety risk, it doesn’t turn out to be that many individuals. Many youth are confined as a punishment for misbehavior that doesn’t pose a safety threat to the public. Or they are struggling with an acute mental health need. Confinement was not meant for those purposes. In this current context many in the youth justice system have found ways to bridge what was often considered competing priorities — improved wellbeing of youth and public safety. Remarkably, the two collided amidst the pandemic and the need for public safety and what in many cases was the best outcome for youth has become a dramatic reduction in confinement.  

The Coronavirus pandemic is bringing into stark relief the many things that need to change if we are to emerge stronger as communities, states and nations. The steep decline in use of confinement is one thing that we must learn from and continue long after the pandemic subsides.  

It is encouraging to hear administrators acknowledge the benefits born from these new guidelines and collaborative mechanisms as well as the growing consensus of leaders who say we need to collect the data, document the steps taken, and evaluate the outcomes to guide the next phase of building the Wisconsin Model of Juvenile Justice.  

In order to make this the new normal for youth justice in Wisconsin it will take dedicated short-term efforts to collect data, evaluate outcomes and adopt policy that supports collaboration and community-based accountability for public wellbeing. It will also take strategic budget reallocation to adequately fund the services that prevent the need for confinement. It will take public input and collaboration between impacted communities, advocates, providers, administrators and elected officials across the state.  

Thankfully there is strong evidence that many of these changes are underway. However, sustaining a broad-based effort to bring needed resources to all counties to meet the needs of our state’s youth and to reduce youth incarceration does require additional funding- otherwise we run the risk of going backwards and returning to silos. However, there are a handful of state initiatives underway that we can leverage to move forward together. We must not let this opportunity slip away. 

Erica Nelson