Please answer the following ten (10) questions to the best of your ability:

How many juvenile arrests were there in your city/state last year (2010)?

How many juveniles were referred to court in your city/state last year (2010)?

How many juvenile petitions were filed in your city/state last year (2010)?

How many juveniles were detained in your city/state last year?

How many juveniles were diverted from the juvenile justice system in your city/state last year?

How many juveniles were given probation/supervision last year?

How many juveniles were incarcerated in your city or state last year?

How many juvenile expungements of criminal records were granted in your city/state last year?

How much did it cost to incarcerate a juvenile in your city/state last year?

How much did it cost to offer community-based treatment for juveniles last year?

If you were unable to answer even one of the questions listed above correctly, don’t worry you are in good company. The vast majority of Americans have no clue about the scope or impact of the juvenile justice system in their local communities. Community members cannot be faulted for this. Local juvenile justice systems do not make the data readily accessible for the most part. This of course makes it very difficult to mobilize to hold the systems accountable for how they treat our children. Information properly deployed is power and I believe that the government tries to control and manage information so as to keep the public disempowered.

One exception that I just learned about is the state of Georgia which has launched a juvenile justice data clearinghouse as part of an effort to increase system transparency. I hope that every state in the country follows suit and expands this effort to include adult criminal legal data as well. It is critical for citizens to know what is being done in our name and to be able to hold public officials accountable for how they use our resources.

Here in Chicago (in a much more low budget and low tech way), my organization is also attempting to make juvenile justice data more transparent. This past weekend, I facilitated a training for over 30 community members about how to access and more importantly how to understand local juvenile justice data. The Chicago Youth Justice Data Project (CYJDP) is a grassroots attempt to mobilize community members to use data in organizing efforts to increase system accountability. I don’t think that it should be left to small community organizations to seek out relevant and accurate data. Our local governments need to do this work.

In the meantime, I encourage all citizens to get educated about how the juvenile justice system operates in your local community.