Skyrocketing incarceration rates, over-representation of ethnic minorities, a fixation on punishment rather than rehabilitation—this isn't describing the modern criminal justice system in the United States. It's New Zealand's in the 1980s.

After watching its criminal justice system devour six times more indigenous Maori youth than their white counterparts, New Zealand passed the Children's and Young People's Well-Being Act in 1989. The legislation, which limited police power to arrest youth and implemented restorative justice practices over formal court proceedings, was the first of its kind. While the results were not perfect—the overall number of youth arrested, charged, and incarcerated fell significantly, but the Maori remain disproportionately represented—the act illustrates a powerful alternative to the criminal justice system in the U.S., which continues to ravage black and brown communities while doing little to prevent crime or rehabilitate offenders.

In a new report, the National Juvenile Justice Network, a Washington, D.C.-based criminal justice non-profit, examines the Children's and Young People's Well-Being Act and draws from it lessons that can be used in re-imagining criminal justice in the U.S. Report author and NJJN senior policy counsel Melissa Goemann spoke with Pacific Standard about what alternatives to incarceration look like, and how they might be implemented in the U.S.

[For more on this story by ARVIND DILAWAR, go to https://psmag.com/social-justi...enile-justice-reform]