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One year into the pandemic, data from 148 facilities across the country show a 4% positive test rate for the COVID-19 virus among youths and less than 2% among staff during the month of April 2021.

Performance-based Standards (PbS) is very proud to announce the finalists for the 2021 PbS Barbara Allen-Hagen Award that recognizes facilities that best exemplify PbS’ commitment to treating all youths as one of our own. We were pleased to receive several applications this year – all using PbS’ data-driven improvement model to develop and implement strategic plans that changed their practices and services.

“I want to be the one who breaks the chain of poverty in my family. My plan when I get out is to get a job to help me stay focused and out of trouble,” one young man wrote to us in his application for the 2021 PbS Reentry Award.

April 26-30 is National Reentry Week, placing special focus on the importance of reentry and supporting and preparing young people to start afresh successfully and fulfil their potential. PbS added the voices of young people leaving facilities during 2020 to the discussion and showed the importance of hearing directly from them about their readiness and preparation for reentry.

Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Very little has changed for young people when they leave juvenile justice facilities. They return to their communities to face the same disadvantages, discrimination and barriers that they struggled with previously, and which likely resulted in their system involvement: unstable living situations, difficulties with school, poverty and lack of access to the basic necessities needed for healthy adolescent development. Their situation becomes more challenging when they leave because their involvement with juvenile justice makes it even harder for them to get back into school, get hired for a job, enlist in the military or be eligible for public housing.

The Performance-based Standards (PbS) Reentry Award was established in 2016 to support youths as they return to living in the community. Recipients are given a gift card for a nearby department store to purchase household items, linens, clothes for work and other things to ease their reentry transition. Ideally, the gift cards are provided to staff to present to the youths shor ...

Inspired by all the women who shared their stories with PbS in celebration of Women’s History Month, and to honor all women in juvenile justice, I share my answers to the questions we asked of them.

Laurie has spent her life’s work pulling together juvenile justice leaders and researchers to ensure laws, policies and practices are informed by science and data and pushing for reforms that ensure all the voices are heard at the table.