The numbers are frightening. Right now, 2.3 million Americans are behind bars. That’s 1 in 137 people, and the majority are African-American and Latino. 

It’s mind-boggling that the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any country on earth. Is the country overrun with evildoers, or are we are doing something different than, say, Canada, which only has 40,500 people behind bars. Even Iran, considered an oppressive nation, has a prison population of 218,000.

The consensus at yesterday’s American Justice Summit at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City was we are doing something exceedingly counterproductive—and it’s not sustainable.

As John Wetzel, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, said about incarceration and its aftermath, “Higher-risk offenders leave lower-risk. Lower-risk offenders leave higher-risk.”  And what does that mean? Simply that we may be locking up too many non-violent wrongdoers and turning them into hardened criminals behind prison walls.

Crystal had reached the “What more can I do?” stage. Her 17-year-old daughter, Danielle, had been getting in trouble for years. It reached crisis overload when the girl disappeared over a Memorial Day weekend. Crystal was sure she had run away but hesitated involving the police.

As time passed, the mother felt she had no choice and had a PINS (People In Need of Supervision) warrant issued on her daughter. This meant that if found, Danielle would be returned to New York City, where they lived, and brought before a judge. 

Getting a warrant wasn’t a decision Crystal took lightly. She knew she ran the risk of losing her child to the juvenile justice system. Danielle was found safe in Washington, D.C. And then things changed dramatically for mother and daughter. The New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) had a mandate to keep kids out of the system and with their families whenever possible.

So instead of Danielle being carted away, the court recommended Multisystemic Therapy (MST) as her treatment plan. Crystal was “skeptical,” as she later put it. After all, she and Danielle had been seeing individual therapists for two years at the great out-of-pocket expense with little evidence her daughter was improving. MST was different, Crystal was told. A therapist would be assigned to the case, she would work with them in their home—and it wouldn’t cost the family anything.

Mental Health Services Conference awards MST a Gold Achievement 

Police in Western Australia described 2013’s 53-percent drop in serious juvenile crime as “extraordinary.” One explanation given for the decline is the expanded use of behavior-management programs. One hundred and sixty of the 297 offenders being handled by youth crime intervention officers were assigned to a program. These 160 youths accounted for 1,098 offenses costing taxpayers $2.5 million. Since being placed in interventions, the number of crimes committed by them dropped to 471.

"Besides the cost-benefit, addressing the underlying issues of these young people has now been shown to reduce reoffending,” said Western Australia acting police inspector Mark Fleskens said.

Adolescents are easily influenced. No surprise there. Sometimes that means regrettable decisions like nose piercing and getting a tattoo. But when your brother or sister gets in trouble with the law, has friends who are violent and incorrigible, the influences are more serious, possibly leading to juvenile detention and prison. 

What do you do when your 16-year-old is disrespectful, aggressive, drinks, disregards curfews, and hangs around with peers who are bad influences? In other words, his life is in a downward spiral toward prison.  (The first names were changed to protect the family's privacy.)

Pablo’s mother, Maria, didn’t have the answer. The Hispanic family living in rural South Carolina had always been close-knit. But since her husband left and her fiancé moved in, Pablo’s behavior had deteriorated.

After a particularly volatile incident, the boy had to be removed from the home.