The Center for Improving Youth Justice (CIYJ) is proud to announce the finalists for the 2025 Barbara Allen-Hagen Award. The award is given each year to a correction and a detention facility who best demonstrate use of the Performance-based Standards continuous improvement process to improve outcomes for their facility and/or agency.
Congratulations to this year’s finalists:
Correction-
- Loysville Youth Development Center, Pennsylvania Bureau of Juvenile Justice Services, Kevin Seabrook, Director.
- Pine Hills Correctional Facility, Montana Department of Corrections, Steve Ray, Superintendent.
- Vacca Campus, Alabama Department of Youth Services, Steven Lafreniere, Executive Director.
Detention-
- Bethel Youth Facility- Detention, Alaska Division of Juvenile Justice, Matt Davidson, Director.
- Clark County Juvenile Detention, NV, Clark County Department of Juvenile Services, John Munoz, Director.
- Maricopa County Juvenile Detention Center- Durango, AZ, Maricopa County Juvenile Probation Department, Eric Meaux, Chief Juvenile Probation Officer.
We received numerous applications this year highlighting improvements in a variety of areas. We were pleased to receive applications from so many sites that shared improvement plans about creating or enhancing positives, including improving the frequency and quality of family contacts, focusing on physical fitness, creating an arts program, streamlining intake and data entry processes and implementing a reentry fair with local employers. Several sites shared efforts on improving safety for young people and staff, reducing confinement and reducing restraints – all very fundamental and important for fostering environments that promote positive development.
Congratulations to our 2025 finalists! We are honored to be sharing their successes and will detail their work in blogs over the coming weeks. Winners will also be featured at our annual Awards Night Gala in Boston on Aug. 8.
The CIYJ Barbara Allen-Hagen Award, established in 2007, honors the legacy of Barbara Allen-Hagen, a dedicated advocate from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) who led the development of the Performance-based Standards project, now CIYJ’s signature program. This prestigious award recognizes facilities and programs that embody Barbara’s guiding principle: Treat all young people coming into facilities as one of our own. The awardees demonstrate the positive impact of adhering to research-based standards and the continuous improvement process championed by CIYJ.