Blog

PbS Perspective January 2015 provides a snapshot of data from the October 2014 collection in areas research shows impact the safety and healthy development of youths.

Research by Caitlin Cavanagh on the impact of family on youths' educational success and reentry preparedness.

Updated Dec. 3, 2014. PbS and its partners launched an initiative to integrate trauma-informed care into PbS for all participants. This issue brief explains the initiative and presents the results of the first step completed in April 2014: asking youths about their experiences and perceptions of being treated using trauma-informed practices.

This issue brief explores the importance of staff perceptions and staff-youth relationships; staff provide another critical level of understanding to what makes a facility successful at rehabilitating youths.

This research brief focuses on the importance of family engagement in youths’ experience in the facility and their reintegration into society. The report introduces the Family-youth Initiative, a collaboration between PbS and the Family Justice Program of the Vera Institute of Justice, and discusses survey results from family members and social supports as well as youth and sta ...

Research has shown that when youths have a generally positive experience in a facility, they are more likely to return to the community and not return to crime. This reports shows the information and outcomes PbS provides about youths' experiences in facilities and the practices and perceptions that can be addressed to improve youths' experiences and impact recidivism.

This research brief summarizes an analysis of the Performance-based Standards (PbS) standards, expected practices and outcome measures to the criteria used in Department of Justice CRIPA investigations over a 10-year period and concludes PbS is an effective program to prevent dangerous incidents that can lead to civil rights violations and investigations.

This brief article speaks to the integrity of PbS data and how PbS addresses data quality through training, technology and verification. The document also explains some of the PbS methodology in collecting statistical samples to derive at report averages and rates.

A report showing participating PbS facilities have worked to cut in half the time youths are isolated and confined to their rooms. Research has shown the practice to be dangerous, ineffective in managing youths' behavior and increases youths' risk for suicide.

The following report summarizes research conducted on behalf of the PbS Learning Institute on the conditions of confinement for juvenile detention facilities, correctional facilities, and assessment centers across the U.S. Using data from facilities that have participated in the Performance-based Standards for Youth Correction and Detention Facilities (PbS) project since 2004, we use statistical analyses to examine how characteristics of facilities and individuals within them relate to a series of safety, order, and security outcome measures, as well as to the likelihood that youth are victimized while incarcerated and to the likelihood of suicide attempts within facilities. Our data come from a variety of sources, each of which is part of the PbS data collection initiative, including: detailed information about every unusual incident that occurred during that month; information from the records of juveniles released during those periods; and surveys of current residents (youth climate surveys), staff (staff climate surveys) and residents released since the last data collection (youth exit interviews).