Life on the "outs" - Examination of the facility-to-community transition of incarcerated youth

Abstract

This article summarizes the results of the Transition Research on Adjudicated Youth in Community Settings (TRACS) project, a 5-year longitudinal study that examined the facility-to-community transition of 531 incarcerated youth (58% had a disability) from Oregon's juvenile justice system. About 40% of the sample returned to the juvenile correctional system within 12 months after release. Only 47% were engaged in work or school at 6 months after release, and 31% were engaged at 12 months after release. Participants who were engaged in work or school at 6 months after release tended to stay involved in those positive activities at 12 months after release and not return to the juvenile correctional system. These results point to the importance of providing interventions focused toward work and school placements immediately upon youths' release from the juvenile correctional system and their return to the community.