New York State’s juvenile justice system is run by several agencies that each collect and report their own data. Until recently, this data had never been compiled or distributed to offer a comprehensive understanding of the system. To address this problem, CYJ and the New York State Task Force on Juvenile Justice Indicators published the state’s first-ever set of juvenile justice indicators in 2007. Widening the Lens 2008, a follow-up to that publication, tracks four key areas of the juvenile justice system—court referrals, detention, court processing, and disposition—to offer insight into how the system has been operating for the past three years. The report seeks to help officials monitor the system, alert managers to demographic shifts or policy changes, and allow stakeholders to identify promising trends and opportunities for reform.

The Center on Youth Justice released an addendum to this report in December 2009.