This document reports on listening sessions with crime analysts serving in juvenile justice systems that explored the application and outcomes of policy changes to juvenile justice system practices in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the central goal of determining which practices should be continued, and how.
This report describes research activities that aimed to answer three questions: how U.S. juvenile justice systems responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and how policies change regarding transfers between and releases from juvenile residential facilities; how the different policy responses are associated with youth and public safety outcomes; and what resources are needed to sustain those policies that were associated with positive outcomes. The authors describe the setting, participants, and focus of their research activities, and provide a detailed breakdown of their findings. The authors state that in this listening session, they learned that crime analysts rarely have time for activity evaluation and also do not collect the data elements they would need, to determine racial and ethnic disparities in juvenile intakes and releases. They suggest that partnerships between criminal justice system practitioners, researchers, and technical assistance providers could help identify and address data gaps.