Improving Engagement, Empowerment, and Support in Juvenile Corrections Through Research.

The concentration of high-risk and high-service needs youth in juvenile secure confinement facilities has greatly challenged facility staff and administrators. Reform initiatives focused on helping facilities manage the challenges of this smaller, more high-risk population of incarcerated youth are based on a body of literature that has limited translational applications. Motivated by the challenges of supporting the population of incarcerated youth in tandem with the limited juvenile justice literature, this article provides a critical review of the family engagement, youth empowerment, and staff support literatures as they apply to juvenile confinement facilities. Using case studies from the Youth in Custody Practice Model, one facility-based reform initiative, we highlight how the existing research has been applied to juvenile confinement facilities and the gaps in the literature that remain. In order for research to keep pace with reform efforts in the field, we advocate a research agenda guided by interdisciplinary perspectives to move the field forward in theory and in practice.