- Office of the Child Advocate
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Ari Fertig, Press Contact
Boston, MA — The Juvenile Justice Policy and Data Board’s 2025 Annual Report, released today, highlights a concerning shift in how youth enter and move through the juvenile justice system. While the overall number of youth entering and moving through the system remained stable from FY24 to FY25, more youth continue to enter the court system through arrests rather than summonses for the third consecutive year. Youth are also experiencing increased pretrial court involvement, even though two-thirds of cases are ultimately dismissed.
The report recommends several key actions to address the needs of justice system-involved youth, including increasing police-led diversion in lieu of arrest, increasing the use of summons instead of arrest, strengthening service connections for youth at the deepest parts of our state system, and reducing unnecessary pretrial involvement.
“That so many cases are ultimately dismissed tells us something important: young people are often entering the system but not actually getting the services and supports they need - - quickly or at all.” said Maria Mossaides, Director of the Office of the Child Advocate. “This presents the Commonwealth with a challenge and an opportunity: we can divert more youth away from court involvement altogether. By connecting young people to the right services as quickly as possible -- instead of sending them through a long and often traumatic court process -- we can better support their well-being while also strengthening the safety of our communities.”
Increased Use of Arrests
For the third year in a row, arrests surpassed summons as the primary method of entry into Juvenile Court. In FY25, 53% of applications for complaint (the first step of the Juvenile Court process) were initiated by arrest, compared to 47% by summons. This is despite longstanding guidance that a summons should be the preferred method unless there is reason to believe the youth will not appear in court. The continued reliance on arrests raises concerns, as arrests can be traumatic for youth and pose safety risks for both youth and law enforcement.
The report underscores persistent disparities in system involvement for Black and Latino youth, beginning at the “front door” of the juvenile justice system. Black youth were three and a half times more likely, and Latino youth twice as likely, as white youth to enter Juvenile Court. Black youth were four times, and Latino youth were three times, more likely to enter via an arrest compared to white youth.
Increased pretrial system involvement despite ultimate dismissal
Youth entering the system are also experiencing greater pretrial court involvement. While detention admissions decreased between FY24 and FY25, a growing share of youth are subject to pretrial conditions of release rather than being released on personal recognizance. Since FY19, there has been a 102% increase in the number of new cases with pretrial conditions of release. In its 2025 report on the pretrial system, the JJPAD Board found that many of the pretrial conditions that youth are subject to are developmentally inappropriate and not tailored to their individual circumstances, possibly leading to higher rates of violations and system involvement.
Despite the increase in pretrial court involvement, the report found that more than two-thirds of cases (67%) were dismissed prior to disposition. While cases are dismissed for a variety of reasons, this trend highlights significant opportunities to divert youth earlier in the process, connect them to services when necessary, and avoid unnecessary court involvement.
Missed opportunities for earlier intervention
Despite the Commonwealth’s expansion of preventive services -- including those offered through the Department of Mental Health, the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services, and MassHealth’s Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative -- the report highlights persistent gaps in access to, and potential ineffectiveness of, supportive services for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Youth involved in the deeper ends of the state’s system report significant levels of need and trauma.
For example, over the past four years youth detained by the Department of Youth Services report, concerning levels of behavioral health needs related to anger (41% of admissions on average), depression/anxiety (30%), alcohol/drug use (29%), thought disturbances (23%), and suicide ideation (11%). Youth detained pretrial also report concerning rates of abuse/neglect histories with 15% of youth detained reporting a history of physical abuse, and 8% reporting a history of sexual abuse.
“The data shows that some youth who remain involved in the juvenile justice system face increasingly complex challenges, underscoring the need for targeted, evidence-based interventions earlier on to prevent delinquency charges, avoid court involvement, and increase public safety,” said Melissa Threadgill, Director of Policy and Implementation at the OCA.
Recommendations
The report puts forward a series of targeted recommendations to improve outcomes for youth and strengthen the effectiveness of the juvenile justice system. These include expanding police-led diversion to reduce unnecessary system entry, increasing the use of summons in place of arrest for low-level offenses, and limiting deeper system involvement at the pretrial stage by prioritizing release on personal recognizance.
The report also calls for strengthening and standardizing connections to behavioral health and other supportive services for youth who remain involved -- particularly those with more complex needs.
Finally, the report calls for improving data collection and reporting to better track outcomes, assessing public safety impacts, and ensure accountability across the system.
The full report detailing the Board's findings and recommendations is available on the JJPAD website.
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About the JJPAD Board
In April 2018, the Legislature passed An Act Relative to Criminal Justice Reform, which created the Juvenile Justice Policy and Data (JJPAD) Board under M.G.L. Chapter 119, Section 89. The Legislature charged the JJPAD Board with evaluating juvenile justice system policies and procedures, making recommendations to improve outcomes based on that analysis, and reporting annually to the Governor, the Chief Justice of the Trial Court, and the Legislature. The statute creating the JJPAD Board also placed a special emphasis on improving the quality and availability of juvenile justice system data. The Child Advocate chairs the JJPAD Board and the Office of the Child Advocate provides staffing for the Board’s work.
https://www.mass.gov/juvenile-justice-policy-and-data-board
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