In the United States,  48,000 young people are held in detention facilities each day. That’s 48,000 young people separated from their families, schools, communities, and the lives they sought to build.

Though the criminal legal system exists to decrease crime, it often sets the stage for a significant likelihood of young people reoffending. Data show 55 percent of young people who have been incarcerated are rearrested within one year of their release, with almost half of them returning to residential facilities. And largely because of systemic racism embedded in the legal system, Black, Latinx, and Native young people experience the highest rates of incarceration—ultimately widening racial and ethnic disparities in life outcomes, including employment.

But one alternative could decrease the recidivism rate and divert young people away from the criminal legal system altogether.

Apprenticeships are an “earn and learn” career pathway that combine classroom instruction with on-the-job paid learning and mentoring. The mutually beneficial apprenticeship structure can address many core catalysts for offending behaviors that contribute to youth recidivism while benefiting employers and the criminal legal system.  

Apprenticeships can address some factors that lead to youth recidivism

Research shows that reentry services and aftercare programs that connect people with professional case managers, mentors, education, and employment opportunities can reduce recidivism. Here are four ways the apprenticeship model facilitates this:  

• Apprenticeships feature an education component. Young people who have been displaced from their school environment face barriers to reenrolling in educational programs. The lack of quality education in juvenile detention facilities exacerbates education gaps, causing students to fall behind. Incarcerated young people are less likely to enroll and complete college compared with nonincarcerated young people, with one study finding that “incarceration in a youth corrections facility led to lower wages, fewer weeks worked, and less job experience by age 39.”
  
  Apprenticeships can provide a flexible pathway to get young people back on track with education. By allowing apprentices to earn high school or college credit while building skills through on-the-job learning, apprentices can finish their GED while accruing college credit. In particular, community colleges can offer academic credit for both the classroom and on-the-job learning components of apprenticeship, with the opportunity to earn an associate’s or bachelor’s degree by the end of the apprenticeship.
• Apprenticeships provide a career pathway. Time spent in detention doesn’t prepare young people to find employment opportunities once released, and stigma surrounding incarceration can increase barriers surrounding employment. Out-of-home placement falls short in preparing young people for a job upon release because of the lack of adequate job training and industry certifications. Stable, full-time employment opportunities for young people can reduce the likelihood of committing crimes while ensuring employment upon program completion.
• Apprenticeships allow young people to “earn and learn.” Fees and court fines pose a financial toll on young people involved in the criminal legal system. To meet immediate financial needs, recently released young people often take low-wage jobs that don’t offer advancement opportunities. This may be especially true for overrepresented groups involved in the criminal legal system who are also disproportionately harmed by the racial wealth gap—particularly Black and Latino young people, who experience more than double the child poverty rates of white children. 
  
  Apprenticeships foster economic stability through paid work that supports apprentices from day one, with wage increases as the apprentice gains more skills. Young people who complete registered apprenticeship programs on exit make an average of $31 per hour, $18.11 more than the median hourly wage for young people overall.
• Apprenticeships offer a support system. Removing young people from their community, through incarceration or other means, can derail their development. The supports apprenticeships offer can help formerly incarcerated young people build new community.
  
  There’s limited research on mentorship’s effects on young people after release, but the evidence we do have suggests it could be a promising approach to lower juvenile justice system involvement and crime. Mentors play crucial roles in apprenticeship programs, from delivering instructional support in learning an occupation to critical life skills. System-involved young people who enroll in apprenticeship programs can count on receiving ongoing support from a mentor—one of many positive adult relationships that can shape their reentry experience. 
  
  Apprenticeships often offer other supportive services for system-involved young people, such as transportation, child care, and tutoring, many times at no cost to employers through the public workforce system. 

Some apprenticeship programs are paving the way for system-involved young people

Over the past decade, there has been increased funding for diversion and reentry programs offering workforce training and apprenticeship to system-involved people:

• Sante Fe YouthWorks. This is a federally funded program that offers programming for young people to 24-year-olds, including system-involved young people. It offers four-month paid apprenticeships through its Workforce Innovation Program that’s sponsored by entities including the City of Santa Fe Juvenile Justice Department and the New Mexico Children Youth & Families Department- Juvenile Community Corrections program. A 2015 cost-benefit study found the YouthWorks’ YouthBuild program earns between $7.20 to $21.60 in societal benefits (PDF) for every dollar spent in program services.
• Towards Employment. This Ohio-based program also advances job training through apprenticeship. Since 2004, Towards Employment has offered programming specifically for those with previous criminal legal system involvement to decrease the number of barriers in obtaining employment and livable wages. Since 2019, Towards Employment has partnered with the manufacturing agency, MAGNET, to train 220 people. Seventy percent of participants retained job placements 90 days after completing the program.

Scaling apprenticeships for formerly involved young people

The benefits of apprenticeship extend beyond youth. By interrupting the flow of young people into detention centers, apprenticeship can provide relief to the overutilized facilities and invest in the economy by reinvesting the $214,620 it costs annually to detain one young person into workforce initiatives. And training these young people can help decrease the shortage of skilled workers in America.

The apprenticeship model has the potential to interrupt the cycle of recidivism, offering alternative routes to success for many more young people if programs are scaled.