Checklist for Juvenile Confinement Decisions During and After COVID-19

The following checklist is a tool to help juvenile justice professionals responsible for placing youth in confinement to examine the criteria for confinement. Considerations of risks of confinement to youth— contracting COVID-19 or other communicable diseases, trauma, poor-long term outcomes—and risks to public safety are set forth with steps to use data, criminogenic risk assessments, and alternatives to confinement to guide decision-making. The goal of this checklist is to help practitioners use confinement sparingly and for the shortest amount of time consistent with both youth and public safety.