Detention and Alternatives

The purpose of secure detention is to keep youth in a locked facility for a short time while they wait for a court decision or for space to become available in a longer-term program. Even though this is usually a brief step in the juvenile justice system, it can often have lasting effects on a young person’s life. Youth are removed from their families, schools, and support systems, and placed in unfamiliar environments where they must share space with other young individuals—some of whom may also have been involved in criminal activity (Holman & Ziedenberg, 2006). While the goal should be to use secure detention as infrequently as possible to avoid lasting negative effects, it is sometimes necessary to detain youth to keep the community safe while court processes occur and next steps are determined. 

When police arrest a young person and think that they should be kept in detention to ensure community safety, juvenile justice officials must decide what to do next. They can choose to keep the youth in detention, let them go home, or send them home but require that they be monitored electronically or report to an evening reporting center after school. To help make this decision, many states use a tool called a detention risk assessment instrument (DRAI). A DRAI asks questions to assess how likely the youth is to break the law again or to not show up for court. Based on the answers, the youth is rated as a low, moderate, or high risk. The goal of using a DRAI is to help juvenile justice officials make decisions that are fair and to help keep the youth and the community safe in the short term.  

Maryland’s DRAI is based on research regarding what factors make it more likely for youth to break the law again or miss their court hearing. By law, the DRAI has to be reassessed every five years to make sure it is still achieving its intended goals. Researchers at the Institute have worked with the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) for over a decade to continuously study and improve the DRAI. In February 2025, DJS began using a new version of the DRAI based on the Institute’s latest research. You can find more details about the study in the full report and summary linked below. 

DRAI Validation Study Report: 2025 Update

 

Over the last twenty-five years, we have learned more about the ways that secure detention can be harmful to young people. Because of this, more money has been spent on programs that keep youth in the community instead of placing them in a secure detention facility. Approaches like home detention, electronic monitoring, and evening reporting centers have become more common. Many states have even closed some of their detention centers (see Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2017). However, the most common alternative to detention (ATD) programs are focused on making sure youth are where they are supposed to be - for example, that they go home immediately after school - instead of addressing their needs while they wait for court processes to play out.  

It is important to create a wide range of programs that meet the real needs of youth and families. One new approach is the EMBRACE initiative from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, which connects youth with “credible messengers” – people who have been through similar experiences and can offer support.  

The Institute will continue studying how detention decisions are made in Maryland. This includes examining how the new 2025 DRAI is working, how new programs are being used, and how effective these options are at helping youth and families.