Restorative justice solutions for youth are growing abroad, can they become part of the mix in the U.S.

It’s now common for youth to remain in foster care or residential treatment for years. For troubled or victimized children in need, assistance at home is often more effective than foster placement.

In 2012, Hinds County passed a consent decree that restricted the amount of time youth spent detained at the Henley Young Juvenile Justice Center, also limiting the mental health resources that can help offenders. However, the courts passed this legislation without the input of the youth court judge, who had noted problems with the early dismissal of youths. In 2016, the youth-court judge filed a motion and compromised with the Henley Young Detention Center to adjust the policies in the consent decree and now better serves the youth court system.

In Seattle, the over-policing of drug users has been extensive and frequently racially biased. Looking for a new solution, the LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) program, driven by a harm reduction philosophy, is connecting users with key social services rather than punishment.

A growing number of tribal judges nationwide - including Judge Abby Abinanti of the Yurok Tribal Court - are using a framework of traditional culture and an approach known as "restorative justice" to address both the need for rehabilitation of offenders and resolution for people often failed by the dominant criminal justice system.

A consent decree ensures juveniles are not held more than 21 days in a Jackson, Miss., facility that was the subject of a lawsuit over the number of children it held and the conditions they faced. But opponents, including a youth court judge, say this is not solving the underlying problems facing the young offenders and even the plaintiffs in the suit says the larger issue is the approach to juvenile justice in the state.

New Zealand introduced restorative justice practices for juveniles in their criminal justice system after incredibly high rates of child incarceration and an over-representation of minorities. The practice, in places since the late 80's, includes youth justice councils and limits police arrests. The "overall number of youth arrested, charged, and incarcerated" has fallen, but there is still disproportionate representation of minority groups in the system.

In Colorado, four communities are piloting a program that offers low-level drug or prostitution offenders an alternative to prison. This program, known as Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, matches the offender with a case manager who in turn connects them with treatment and training resources.

The city of Philadelphia has been experimenting and iterating on the development of a Juvenile Justice Hub – a program that would transform interactions between the city’s youth and the police. The Hub is in the testing phase, as it is part of a Bloomberg Philanthropies competition for $1 million in grant funding. If received, the city would be able to officially deploy the ideas it has been testing, like training police in trauma and providing more social services for kids who are picked up by police.

The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program in Alamosa, Colorado, gives police officers the option of sending people to substance abuse treatment rather than straight into the criminal justice system. Used in non-violent cases, the diversion program is based on a harm-reduction model that uses a health-care approach rather than a punitive approach to address the underlying issues when a crime is committed. Some police officers object to the program's mission, but proponents say that forcing compliance would be counterproductive.

As an alternative to traditional courts, community courts provide resources to those experiencing homelessness. Fines and jail time are often the punishment in traditional courts for those charged with trespassing or loitering, but community courts provide services that help people find housing, jobs, health care, and even offer mobile showers, food stamp assistance, and mental health care. While the long-term data are lacking and don't offer a clear picture of recidivism rates, community courts do provide a better quality of life for those living on the streets.