Results. The adolescent participants described their homes, schools, and neighborhoods as chaotic and unsafe. They expressed a need for love and attention, discipline and control, and role models and perspective. Youths perceived that when home or school failed to meet these needs, they spent more time on the streets, leading to incarceration. They contrasted the path through school with the path to jail, reporting that the path to jail felt easier. All of them expressed the insight that they had made bad decisions and that the more difficult path was not only better but also still potentially achievable.
Conclusions. Breaking cycles of juvenile incarceration will require that the public health community partner with legislators, educators, community leaders, and youths to determine how to make success, rather than incarceration, the easier path for disadvantaged adolescents.

With 2 million juveniles arrested and over 60 000 detained annually, the United States incarcerates a larger proportion of youths than any other developed country.1–3 Incarcerated adolescents represent a high-risk, vulnerable population with disproportionately high rates of unmet physical, developmental, social, and mental health needs, and higher mortality.4–7 Juvenile offending predicts a higher likelihood of chronic adult offending, as well as adverse adult outcomes such as poor health, substance use, and increased mortality.8 Further, significant disparities exist. African American youths are approximately 5 times more likely, and Latino and American Indian adolescents are 3 times more likely, to be detained than their White counterparts.3 Additionally, adolescents from socially disadvantaged neighborhoods are at higher risk for incarceration.9 These inequities perpetuate future incarcerations. Prior incarceration places youths at greater risk for repeat offending throughout adolescence and adulthood.10 Within 3 years of release, approximately 75% of adolescents are rearrested.2

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4463382/