Put Data to Work for You
PbS is a data-driven continuous improvement process for juvenile justice facilities, community residential programs and reentry services to improve conditions and quality of life in our nation’s juvenile facilities. We offer research-based standards and performance measures that focus on:
Making Facilities Safe
Public safety and the safety of the youths, staff and visitors is the primary responsibility of confinement facilities. PbS standards and performance data focus on management practices that promote safety and wellbeing and minimize the risks of harm.
Monitoring Program Effectiveness
The challenge for youth facility leaders is to provide programming and services that both keep youths engaged and out of trouble and puts them on the path to becoming productive, purposeful citizens. PbS standards and performance measures focus on education and employment opportunities, health and behavioral health services and building life skills and competencies.
Achieving Positive Outcomes
Time in custody can and should be a catchment opportunity to help youths prepare to return to living with their families and community. PbS standards and performance measures focus on what research has shown are the most likely outcomes to prevent reoffending and give youths a meaningful second chance when they leave.
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Success Stories
Watch to see how facilities nationwide use PbS to measure and drive continuous improvement in their operations each day.
REDUCE REOFFENDING
Making Reentry Successful
Young people leaving the care and supervision of juvenile justice agencies need to be prepared and ready to become purposeful, productive citizens. PbS offers a framework and tools that jurisdictions can use to develop research-based reentry systems and measure positive youth outcomes.
It is truly amazing the culture change that PbS has fostered at our facility. As you know, PbS is a big endeavor but oh my is it ever worth it!
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Publications
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Attracting and Keeping the Right Staff
Recruiting new staff to work for juvenile justice agencies has become a bit easier over the past year, according to about 70 professionals who gathered recently for the Performance-based Standards (PbS) Learning Institute’s 2023 Agency Coordinators Training. But attracting the right staff and keeping them remains a challenge. This brief shares tips from the PbS Agency Coordinators and shares Staff Climate Survey results from the April 2023 data collection.
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Confinement
Fundamental fairness is at the heart of a just society and essential to healthy adolescent development. Young people need to feel they are treated fairly, respected and their voices matter. They also need to see the justice system as fair. But one look at the overwhelming disproportionate number of young people of color who are sent to secure juvenile facilities challenge any sense of fairness.
Experiences of Youth in Confinement: Pathways of Racial-Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Corrections
Looking at the experiences of young people in confinement facilities, the dissertation finds race and ethnicity is a significant predictor of a young person experiencing more control-oriented interventions, longer lengths of stay in confinement and fewer connections to reentry services. More specifically, the researcher found Black, Hispanic and minority young people were confined or restrained more often than others, stayed longer in facilities and had fewer connections to reentry services, adding to the cumulative negative impact of system involvement on young people of color. A summary of the dissertation is in the works and will be shared when available.
Research Brief: Predicting Use of Restraints and Perceptions of Safety Using Staff Demographic Characteristics
Using staff demographic characteristics to predict two important issues in juvenile confinement facilities: (1) the use of restraints during behavioral incidents and (2) staff perceptions of safety. Specifically, we investigated whether individuals who belong to racial and ethnic groups that have experienced systematic and individual oppression (referred to as minoritized staff) differ in their use of restraints during incidents than non-minoritized staff. Then, we investigated whether the proportion of female staff predicts staff perceptions of safety in the facility.