The Center for Improving Youth Justice (CIYJ) is proud to announce Hamilton County Juvenile Court Youth Center in Ohio as one of the winners of the 2026 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 make positive changes and improve outcomes for young people, facility staff, families and communities.
The improvement effort began after their data showed high confinement hours. The facility recognized that its behavior management approach had been too reactive and punitive, with inconsistent confinement practices and developing staff buy-in around data-driven improvement. In response, they implemented a broad set of strategies, including daily confinement tracking, stronger administrative oversight, PBIS, youth incentives, staff retraining, intervention teams, calming spaces, expanded programming, and clearer confinement policies.
Congratulations to the entire team in Hamilton County!
Watch the video to learn more about this year’s Barbara Allen-Hagen Award detention category winner.
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.