Commentary: Release nonviolent juvenile offenders from custody to protect them from COVID-19

Commentary: Release nonviolent juvenile offenders from custody to protect them from COVID-19

Elizabeth Cauffman, a Psychological Science professor at UC Irvine, writes, “Under the best of circumstances, the widespread detention of nonviolent juvenile offenders is bad public policy that in the long run makes our communities more, not less, dangerous. But in the throes of a global pandemic, the unnecessary confinement of these youth in settings where they are likely to be exposed to COVID-19 compounds the public safety risk by exacerbating the spread of the virus.”