This brief provides an overview of themes we identified in three-year plans that states submit to receive Title II funds. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) sets uniform standards of care and custody for court-involved young people across the country. States that voluntarily choose to comply with the JJDPA are eligible for Title II federal grant funding. These states must submit three-year plans outlining their strategies for addressing the act’s 33 statutory requirements, with emphasis on the achievement and maintenance of the act’s four core requirements. These plans offer valuable insights into how states are supporting and serving young people and juvenile justice trends across the country.

Key Takeaways

Forty-nine states and Washington, DC, currently participate in the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Title II formula grant funding.

Delinquency prevention is the most common goal listed in states’ three-year plans, followed by compliance monitoring. Seventy-one percent of states listed reducing racial and ethnic disparities as one of their top five goals.

The priorities in plans submitted from 2018 to 2021 differ from those submitted since. For instance, more states have been including community-based placement as a top-five priority. Fewer states have been listing reducing racial and ethnic disparities, addressing the needs of girls in the system, and deflecting, diverting and providing alternatives to detention for young people in their top five priorities.

How We Did It

We compiled all publicly available three-year plans from 2018 to 2024 through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s website, state websites, and webpage archiving sites.