Sticker Shock: Calculating the Full Price for Youth Incarceration – For nearly a decade and a half, the vast majority of states have made substantial progress in reducing reliance on incarceration to address behavior by the nation’s youth. Levels and rates of commitment of adjudicated youth have dropped: Between 2001 and 2011, there has been a 45 percent decline in the rate of youth committed and in residential placement.  Temporary confinement of youth does play a role in the overall public safety system. Government uses incarceration both for adults and youth in incapacitation, deterrence, and retribution. That said, as highlighted by the National Research Council of the National Academies in their comprehensive review of juvenile justice policy, a “developmental model of juvenile justice rejects many of the punitive law reforms of the late 20th century as often excessively harsh and therefore unfair to young offenders and as likely to increase rather than decrease the threat to public safety. Indeed, the evidence suggests incarceration likely increased the risk of recidivism for many youth.”