Throughout the United States, Latino youth in particular are targeted for severe punishment at the hands of the juvenile justice system and in every stage of the process, including police stops, arrest, detention, waiver to adult criminal court, and sentencing. Moreover, many Latino youth are unnecessarily confined instead of being diverted into community-based programs. These problems are compounded by the lack of adequate data collection, making Latino youth invisible in the justice system.

The juvenile justice system is decentralized (i.e., independently run in every state); NCLR thus focuses on state-level reform and federal-level advocacy to ensure that the interest and needs of Latino youth are adequately represented.