Interesting! What strikes me is how short the stays are. Is there even any point?

The averages is under a week for most offense categories. Under a month for every one of them. Does a kid come out different at the end of a week of lockup? Seems like the post-lockup supervision must be doing all the heavy lifting... can we just skip the week?

(Am I reading these numbers right?)

I wondered what "At risk - contempt" meant. It means "violating their parents' wishes", like staying out late. WTF. Fuck that as an offense.

"About 26 percent of the status offenses admitted to detention were for At Risk-Contempt warrants, which involve youth violating their parents’ wishes, often staying out or not coming home"

Great story Steven. Please please please, more stories like this one underpinned by fact- and data-driven investigation. The Stranger produces some great reporting and analysis but all too often it's supported tenuously by unvalidated third-party statistics or assertions, or by no data at all. Thank you for pursuing the data from the primary source (KC), critically interrogating it, and sharing what limitations and open questions remain.

What are the punishments alternatives then in a zero youth detention scenario for offenses committed by youth? (Sorry if I missed it in the text.)

pretty simple. don't do the crime don't do the time. anything less is criminal.

Great work, Stranger staff.