Study reveals alarming rate of post-release fatalities among Cook County juvenile detainees.

A Northwestern University study found that one in four youths who spent time in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center were shot or killed in the years following their release. The study tracked the lives of approximately 1,800 teens who were held at the detention center in the mid- to late-1990s, a population that is heavily Black and Hispanic, and overwhelmingly poor. The findings should guide policy makers to move young people leaving custody into programs that can help prevent violence, including connecting them with community-based organizations once they leave a hospital or detention center.