What necessary reforms would help the juvenile justice system function better? originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

The key to reforming the juvenile justice system is prevention.

The United States incarcerates a far greater proportion of youth than any other developed country. Although we are succeeding in decreasing youth incarceration rates, the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems continue to disproportionately impact poor and minority youth. Black and Latino youth are especially overrepresented. Early justice involvement strongly predicts later justice involvement; once incarcerated it can be difficult to overcome cycles of re-incarceration. Further, justice involvement during childhood and adolescence predicts worse health and social outcomes into adulthood.

Thus, setting youth on healthy trajectories requires that we bend the incarceration curve towards prevention. Avoiding justice involvement in the first place has a huge potential to benefit many youth.

It's an unfortunate fact that some children inevitably find themselves in difficult circumstances in life. Some come from unstable or unsafe home environments. Some may have mental illness – whether related or unrelated to childhood trauma. Some have learning disabilities. Many youth in the justice system come from rough neighborhoods that offer risks, including delinquent behavior of other youth in the neighborhood and disparate policing practices, that can increase their likelihood of “offending.” Oftentimes, this means getting caught for doing something “bad,” even though their actions may be related to coping or surviving in their neighborhood.

We have a major question before us: how do we best respond to troubled children? How do we as a society deal with the unmet health and social needs of vulnerable youth?

As opposed to incarceration, alternate paths are likely more appropriate for dealing with troubled children and adolescents. For example, California’s Governor Jerry Brown just signed Senate Bill 439 (Mitchell), which will exclude children 11 and under from the juvenile justice system. Instead, children can get the treatments and support they need in the community and through alternate systems. Prevention is key.

Prevention is so important, because once in the juvenile justice system, it can be hard to exit—to escape cycles of re-incarceration, to get good jobs, and to find housing and other social supports. The stigma remains as well.

For youth who are incarcerated in the juvenile justice system, much can be done to make the experience of confinement as healing as possible. Some juvenile detention facilities in Los Angeles County are closing. Others are being re-built with youth-centric architecture. The idea of the juvenile justice system is mainly to rehabilitate—to heal—rather than to punish. Schedules, facilities, the culture of communication between youth and probation staff, correctional health care screenings and treatment, education opportunities—all these aspects can come together to optimally make the youth feel that society wants to invest in them. Recognize their potential and help them heal; reflect on errors, get help when needed, and move on.

I salute the correctional community for the hard work they invest in the youth. And more needs to be done at the policy level and on the ground to make sure that corrections staff are set up in practice to help give each youth the best chance of success.

Following release, additional changes need to be made so that children can be warmly embedded back into their home environment. Most incarcerated youth will eventually be released. Transitions home are difficult. Aftercare planning should include connecting youth to their home institutions and community providers (e.g., school, doctor, job, substance use treatment program). Also, the family often needs support. Investing in supporting families during re-entry through active follow-up (ideally in as non-punitive a fashion as possible), social service referrals, and in meeting any health or educational needs, as well as guiding families through successful completion of court mandates is needed.

Adolescence is challenging, and youth re-entry after incarceration during adolescence poses unique hurdles. Without better support for families during re-entry, we set youth up to fail. An opportunity for secondary prevention is missed.

But by improving re-entry supports, which begins with careful planning in the pre-release period, we can make a difference. Innovation has occurred in this area, and more can be done.

There are several countries that do not have a juvenile justice system, such as Finland, and instead consider young people who come to the attention of law enforcement as children (or adolescents) in need of support. This is the frame with which I think we should move forward. All sectors of society need to come together to create the social supports and infrastructure so that more children can thrive and the juvenile justice system becomes increasingly irrelevant. Young people need to know we believe in them.

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