Juvenile Detention Book Drive

Nearly 350,000 youth are detained in the United States each year. More than half of these are adjudicated as delinquent, and nearly 90,000 are placed in residential facilities. Access to educational resources is of special importance for such young people during confinement. The average cost to confine a juvenile is $88,000 per year – and a recent study showed that about 55 percent of youth were re-arrested within twelve months of release. Research has shown that literacy is one of the biggest predictors of whether or not a young person will return to the juvenile justice system once they are released. Without books, life for such juveniles is reduced to boredom and their blank stares at the walls only make matters worse.

I am reaching out to you. You can help out by contributing towards the fundraiser or donating books you no longer need. The program currently supports juvenile detention centers in CT and NJ. Help us expand the program to more states.