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Conditions of Youth Confinement: Facility Standards and Resources (2025)

(U.S. Version of Detention Standards)

The 2025 Conditions of Youth Confinement: Facility Standards and Resources represent the most comprehensive publicly available standards for youth detention and treatment. This 2025 version builds on the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2014 JDAI Juvenile Detention Facility Standards. It has been revised to be easier to use and more inclusive of youth and family partnerships.

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International Standards for Children in Detention
In the Administration of Justice

The International Standards for Children in Detention in the Administration of Justice is a tool proven to improve detention conditions, the treatment of incarcerated children, and the possibility of a successful reintegration into society.

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Children in Pretrial Detention:

Promoting Stronger International Time Limits

When a child is waiting months or years in detention to see a judge or have a case resolved, what is the shortest possible period of time?

This is the first international report, surveying 118 countries, dedicated to understanding how long children spend in pretrial detention and how practitioners, advocates, civil society and the international human rights community can adopt better practices and standards to protect children waiting in prison.

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Fact Sheet No. 1

The Harms of Child Pretrial Detention
Children In Pretrial Detention: Promoting Stronger International Time Limits FACT SHEET No. 1 “Harms of Extended Pretrial Detention on Children” reviews 25 studies on the impact to children’s rights, physical health, mental health, social development and future crime.
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Fact Sheet No. 2

Global Survey of Pretrial Detention Time Limits
Children In Pretrial Detention: Promoting Stronger International Time Limits FACT SHEET No. 2 “Global Survey of Pretrial Detention Time Limits” summarizes the first international survey of 118 countries from all regions of the globe, analyzing statutory limits to child pretrial detention.
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Fact Sheet No. 3

Emerging Good Practices for Reducing Court Delays
Children In Pretrial Detention: Promoting Stronger International Time Limits FACT SHEET No. 3 “Emerging Good Practices for Reducing Court Delays” looks at 10 practices that states can take to reduce unnecesary delays that cause children to be detained for extended periods of time pretrial.
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Fact Sheet No. 4

Interagency Task Force To Eliminate Unnecesary Delays
Children In Pretrial Detention: Promoting Stronger International Time Limits FACT SHEET No. 4 “Interagency Task Force to Eliminate Unnecessary Delays” gives a broad overview how the key stakeholders in a jurisidiction can create a plan to reduce the duration of child pretrial detention.
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Fact Sheet No. 5

Recommended 30-Day Pretrial Detention Limit
Children In Pretrial Detention: Promoting Stronger International Time Limits FACT SHEET No. 5 “Recommended 30-Day Pretrial Detention Limit” explains how states and international bodies could establish a 30-day limit for child pretrial detention with limited exceptions.
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Reducing Length of Child Pretrial Detention

Watch our live webinar from May 20th, 2019 on starting a global movement to reduce the time children spend in pretrial detention. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Bart Lubow, Aímee Burdgorf, Research Specialist at the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee, Yannick van den Brink Assistant Professor of Child Law at Leiden University and Juvenile Justice Advocates International’s founder Douglas Keillor discuss the challenges and emerging trends to reduce case processing time so that children are truly detained for the “shortest possible period of time.”