This report was published by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

HERE’S HOW THE AUTHORS DESCRIBE THIS REPORT:

There are more than two million youth in U.S. juvenile corrections, 95% of whom have been detained or arrested for non-violent crimes. In fact, the United States incarcerates more youth than any other developed nation and for longer periods of time with no evidence that these efforts at correction make a difference. In the face of these sobering facts, many states and cities are seeking to reform their juvenile justice systems in ways that focus on a more positive, strength-based approach that addresses the current needs and future potential of the young people whom such systems should serve, not merely sentence. Increasingly, arts organizations have stepped forward to act as partners in bringing positive youth development projects to juvenile justice settings. However, given the small numbers of self-selected participants without comparison or control groups, the reliance on qualitative measures, the widespread use of self-report data, and the short-term nature of many of the projects, the results fall short of what public agencies require in order to recognize programs or strategies as evidence-based and thus worth supporting with public dollars or applying widely in programs designed to rehabilitate young people.

In the spirit of building the needed evidentiary base, this study reports results from a collaborative project between the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) in New York City and Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program that addresses some of these design challenges.