First established in 1899 in Cook County, Illinois and then rapidly spread across the country, the juvenile court became the unifying entity that led to a juvenile justice system.

Many states began documenting maltreatment and abuse in juvenile correctional facilities in the 1990s and early 2000s. In Texas, one of the nation’s largest juvenile corrections systems, scandals erupted in 2007, revealing numerous concerns about safety and treatment of incarcerated youth.

The juvenile court was created in Cook County Illinois in 1899, but the concept dates back to seventeenth-century Europe. The term parens patriae originated in the 12th century with the King of England and means “the father of the country.”

Circa the 1970s Missouri began shifting its juvenile corrections into a system that emphasizes smaller secure centers and with less emphasis on punishment. By 2006 many states were trying to copy Missouri's system.

This paper reviews the history of juvenile corrections in America, from the first juvenile facilities established by religious groups in 1825 to the current punitive model that emphasizes the imprisonment of juveniles.