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On April 26, 2022, Performance-based Standards (PbS) hosted a webinar featuring a panel of young people with lived experience discussing their experiences and how juvenile justice agencies could have better helped them with reentry. This panel was moderated by Kim Godfrey Lovett, Executive Director of PbS, and Melissa Sickmund, Director of the National Center for Juvenile Justice.

PbS looked at more than 6,000 surveys between April 2020 and October 2021 to understand the impact of COVID-19 on young people leaving residential care and rejoining communities. In this PbS Data Snapshot, we share Youth Reentry Survey responses to some of the questions and issues posed by the pandemic.

The pandemic and racial violence have created more challenges for the staff and young people in the juvenile justice system than I’ve seen in my 27 years in this field. Not to mention the enormous burden of stress that came along with these impossible times.

The pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus and its variants continues to dominate public discussions and exacerbate already difficult situations in neighborhoods, schools, places of work and of worship and in homes and institutions. Because of the nature of the virus and the reality of asymptomatic infections, it is impossible to know the exact number of positive cases that occur within these various contexts. Widespread testing, however, has proven to be the most useful tool for shedding light on the prevalence of the virus and the effectiveness of interventions.

On February 24, 2022, Performance-based Standards (PbS) hosted a webinar featuring a panel of probation officers discussing their experiences, what reentry success looks like, what information they found most useful to determine placements, and more. This panel was moderated by Kim Godfrey Lovett, Executive Director of PbS, and Melissa Sickmund, Director of the National Center ...

Five research projects were awarded grants to examine the impacts of race and ethnicity, staff-youth relationships, Covid-19 and education barriers in juvenile justice facilities.

On January 27, 2022, Performance-based Standards (PbS) hosted a webinar featuring a panel of judges discussing their experiences, what reentry success looks like, what information they find most useful to determine placements, and more. This panel was moderated by Kim Godfrey Lovett, Executive Director of PbS, and Melissa Sickmund, Director of the National Center for Juvenile J ...

Performance-based Standards (PbS) is now collecting applications for the 2022 PbS Barbara Allen-Hagen Award. We hope you take the opportunity to share and celebrate the improvements and achievements of your facility by submitting an application.

Performance-based Standards (PbS) is pleased to announce that the 8th annual Kids Got Talent Contest is now open! This contest is such a joy for our team and every year, we are impressed with not only the talented youths but the staff that support their creative abilities. We always enjoy hearing about programs holding their own talent contests as incentives for young people or ...

Russ believed in change – the ability for failing systems to transform and evolve, the power of leadership to make a difference and especially in the strength of disadvantaged young people to turn their lives around. In 2011, after decades of public service in Kansas as deputy sheriff, director of the Southwest Kansas Regional Detention Center, district magistrate judge and com ...