7/24/26-Freedom Shouldn't Depend on Having a Safe Place to Go
As a teenager, I was incarcerated and entered a system I had known about my entire life through the experiences of those around me. What I did not expect was to see how many young people remained locked up not because they posed a threat to public safety, but because they had nowhere else to go. Their freedom depended not on their actions, but on whether the system could find a safe place for them to stay.
As someone who has experienced incarceration and now advocates for youth, I believe no young person should lose their freedom because adults and systems have failed to provide a safe place for them to go. Yet this continues to happen every day.
According to a 2024 report from the Vera Institute of Justice, many girls and gender-expansive youth enter the juvenile justice system because of family conflict, housing instability, and unmet service needs. The report found that detention decisions are often driven by efforts to keep young people safe or connect them to services that should already exist in the community.
My experience opened my eyes to the ways the juvenile justice system often responds to these unmet needs with incarceration. I saw young people remain locked up because they lacked stable housing, family support, or a safe placement to return to. Too often, youth are punished for circumstances beyond their control. Family conflict, homelessness, and gaps in support systems should never become reasons for a young person to lose their freedom.
What I witnessed firsthand is reflected in the experiences of many young people across California. Former Santa Clara County juvenile court Judge Katherine Lucero observed that many girls entered the juvenile justice system because of family relationships and parents who did not want them to return home. She has criticized the long-standing practice of locking up young people "for their own safety" when communities fail to provide other options. Instead, she argues that youth should receive the services and support necessary to remain safely in their communities, not detention.
When a young person remains incarcerated because a parent refuses to pick them up or because there is no placement available, the system is responding to a lack of resources rather than a public safety concern. Youth deserve stable housing, supportive services, and caring adults not additional time behind locked doors because there is nowhere else for them to go.
The solution requires all of us to take responsibility. Community members, service providers, system partners, and decision-makers must come together before young people reach a crisis point. Spaces like the Juvenile Justice Gender Responsiveness Collaborative in Santa Clara County create opportunities for youth, community organizations, and stakeholders to work together on solutions that prioritize care over incarceration.
If the current system cannot meet a young person's needs, we must build one that can. We need more housing options, stronger community-based services, and greater investment in prevention and support because every young person deserves a plan for their future, not a detention cell. The question is not whether these young people deserve help. The question is whether we are willing to provide it before incarceration becomes the answer.
