Youth Incarceration Fell When California Required Counties To Pay More For Juvenile Detention

After California enacted a law requiring counties to cover more of the cost for juvenile justice incarceration, the number of youth criminal court commitments to state-run juvenile facilities dropped by 40%. Prior to a 1996 law, called the Hurtt law, the counties paid a flat rate of $25 per month per person for county youth held at a state juvenile justice facility, which covered 1% of the total cost of incarceration. The Hurtt law intended to shift the cost of running juvenile correctional facilities from the state to counties.

From 1990 to 1996, California counties referred an average of . . .