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In April 2021, the average daily population in detention centers and correction facilities continued to decline slightly and remained below pre-pandemic numbers. Policy changes to admission, transfers and releasing youths may have contributed to fewer youths in custody.

During the month of April 2021, 90% or more of PbS participating facilities were implementing the majority of recommended pandemic responses. Agencies created strategies to reduce the impact, presence and spread of COVID-19. 

Launched in 2015, the annual Performance-based Standards (PbS) Kids Got Talent Contest celebrates and showcases the many and varied talents of young people in juvenile justice facilities. Despite the many challenges and obstacles the year brought, PbS received many outstanding entries as talented young people weren’t going to let the pandemic stop them from sharing their impres ...

Ferris School in Wilmington, DE has been named as a finalist in the correction category for the 2021 PbS Barbara Allen-Hagen Award for their impressive work creating a safer environment for staff and young people in their care.

They are future engineers and entrepreneurs, artists and athletic trainers, mechanics and mathematicians. The youths who applied to the 2021 PbS Scholarship Award expressed a wide range of ambitions and aspirations in their applications to advance their educational goals. But a common thread ran through every youth application: Hope. Hope for opportunities, hope to create a meaningful life and hope to give back.

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.