This book is intended as a practical, field-tested guide for professionals delivering and shaping healthcare services in juvenile justice systems. As the first comprehensive resource of its kind, the book draws from the experience of Dr. Michelle Staples-Horne, who has led the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice’s medical system for over thirty years and helped shape national best practices. Co-authored by Dr. Elizabeth Barnert, a physician-scientist and expert in youth justice health policy, the book offers a unique blend of implementation insight, clinical acumen, and systems-level thinking.

The primary objective is to equip healthcare professionals, juvenile justice administrators, public health leaders, and policymakers with an actionable roadmap to build, strengthen, and reform healthcare systems for youth in custody. The book emphasizes how to operationalize trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate, and equitable care in confinement, while also addressing critical areas such as Medicaid coverage, workforce development, quality improvement, and reentry.

While resources exist for adult correctional health or for clinical care in community pediatrics, no dedicated book addresses the full scope of pediatric care for youth in confinement. This book fills that gap, offering both a strategic blueprint and an educational resource to elevate practice, inform policy, and inspire reform.

Michelle Staples-Horne, MD, MPH, MS, is Medical Director for the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice. She received her MD from Morehouse School of Medicine and MPH from Emory University. She has led healthcare reform for incarcerated youth across Georgia and nationally, and is a past president of the American College of Correctional Physicians. She has authored over 25 scientific publications and received awards the American College of Correctional Physicians' Armond Start Award in 2013, the NCCHC's Bernard P. Harrison Award in 2016, and the American Correctional Association's E. R. Cass Award in 2023.

Elizabeth S. Barnert, MD, MPH, MS, is a pediatrician and professor of pediatrics at UCLA. Her research and clinical practice focus on youth impacted by the juvenile legal system. She has led NIH- and foundation-funded studies on youth reentry, DNA-based reunification, and structural drivers of incarceration. Dr. Barnert is a juvenile hall clinician and co-leader of the Life Course Translational Research Network’s Youth Justice Node.