State background
Louisiana is a state that is emphatically moving in the right direction on juvenile justice issues. With juvenile justice reform a top priority for the state’s political leadership, Louisiana is rethinking and restructuring its system from top to bottom, and has already managed a significant shift in emphasis from a primarily correctional orientation to one centered on the treatment and rehabilitation of youth. It has dramatically reduced its traditional reliance on secure incarceration of juveniles in state-run facilities. And it has emerged from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita with a new sense of urgency and a willingness to innovate that has created the potential for significant and lasting reform.
Background documents