A longtime youth advocate and U.S. Department of Justice official joined Hennepin County Mary Moriarty this week in Minneapolis, where she lauded local efforts toward juvenile justice reform as a model for the rest of the nation.

"What you're seeking to do here totally aligns with what we're trying to do," said Liz Ryan, appointed by President Joe Biden as administrator of the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

More than a year into her first term, Moriarty invited Ryan to serve as keynote speaker for a youth justice symposium Thursday attended by 150 attorneys, educators, policymakers and advocates. Later that evening, she met dozens of students at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Minneapolis, where she said the passionate young adults in the room gave her "goosebumps" as they talked about the legacy of civil rights leader John Lewis on the first day of Black History Month.

In both stops of Ryan's visit, the optimism was evident despite the tough conversations and challenges of addressing root causes of crime and the ways systems fail to help youth, often youth of color, before they end up in the criminal justice system. Ryan said the goal of her office is to ensure youth don't come into contact with the system, and if they do "that it is rare, that it is fair, and that is beneficial."

"Kids make rash decisions and they act on impulse, which can lead them down the wrong path," Ryan said. "But they can change. Kids are capable of change."

Fifty years ago, congress passed the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act that established Ryan's office, the OJJDP. The act removed children from adult prisons and established grants to improve local systems and prevent juvenile crime by incentivizing community-based programs rather than institutionalizing youth.

OJJDP recently awarded $1 million to three jurisdictions across the U.S. to reform and reinvest in juvenile justice — Hennepin County is one of them.

"We're not the only community that's experiencing the challenges that we are," Sarah Davis, director of the Children and Families Division of the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, said in an interview. "We can't just keep doing the same thing and expect different outcomes."

Davis said what the office is trying to implement — evidence-based approaches for transformative change that improves public safety — is not "out of left field." The OJJDP recommends it and other communities are doing it, too.

Leaders from Yellow Medicine County's Department of Restorative Justice served on the symposium panel. Director Sharon Hendrichs said they stopped placing children in detention centers and foster care, decreasing spending from $656,000 to $50,000. That leaves more funding for healing and rehabilitation through what they call a "circle," bringing together victims, offenders and community members.

Hendrichs said data proves this approach works, but they shouldn't need to prove it for the county to invest in the work. She said departments ask for new snow plows and "we don't know if it's going to snow. Look at this year."

Early data from Hennepin County's new approach to deterring youth auto theft, which spiked in and around the pandemic, shows promising results. Moriarty's office created a program to identify at-risk youth before they are caught up in or charged with auto theft by referring them to a social worker.

Since launching the program last summer, Moriarty said of the 82 kids referred, 88% had no new cases.

Ryan said youth sent to a detention center are 23 times more likely to be killed by gun violence than other youth. A very small number of youth commit crime. Instead, they are much more likely to be victims of crime, she explained.

OJJDP studies found that most young people who engage in delinquent behavior age out of it, she said, and young people who receive community-based services were more likely to attend school, access work opportunities and avoid further justice system involvement.

"To be clear, we're not excusing delinquent behavior," Ryan said. "We know that there's a path towards rehabilitation and growth for young people."

Some high-profile murder cases with youth offenders drew criticism of Moriarty's office for offering defendants probation and treatment rather than lengthy prison terms.

The backlash was so severe that Moriarty said she hired security with the onslaught of death threats. But she said people often agree with her and believe youth can be rehabilitated — just not when it comes to murder.

"There's a line there," Moriarty said on stage with Ryan and other panelists. "To me it's more about this person's maybe morals, how they judge, what they think should be a penalty, a punishment... It's not at all about whether this kid is capable for rehabilitation. And knowing that every kid is capable of rehabilitation makes me hopeful."

The OJJDP grant will further Moriarty's goals of analyzing data to show what works and what doesn't when it comes to juvenile justice. Davis said it will also fund expanding diversion programs, expungement efforts and more conversations in the community.

Ryan and Moriarty did just that in the dimly lit church basement as they handed a microphone back and forth to talk with co-founders of youth-led organization Good Trouble, Jose Perez and Julian Spencer.

In just a few years, the young adults went from struggling in school and experiencing the justice system to now advocating for policy changes at the capital and sitting on a panel with Ryan and Moriarty.

"The biggest thing for me is really to hear from you all, from young people, because that's what keeps us on toes and keeps us accountable," Ryan said.