On Tuesday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced that the state will try to shut down its three large youth correctional facilities in favor of building smaller and less centralized units as a juvenile justice reform measure. DeWine cited findings that young people “do not respond well to adult-style incarceration,” Crain’s Cleveland Business reported.

The decision came at the urging of a working group assembled by the governor that also recommended the state stop incarcerating teenagers convicted for the first time of non-violent crimes and children under 14 in state youth prisons.

The working group was assembled after a months-long investigation into Ohio’s juvenile justice system by several local newspapers. The investigation found that youths in the system were routinely victims of violence and neglect, and that employees of the facilities faced chronic understaffing and threats to their safety. Instead of receiving rehabilitation and support, many of these young people left the system with trauma that exacerbated behavioral issues. Teens who enter the system have a 40% likelihood of winding up back in custody and face a disproportionate chance of dying an early, violent death.

Los Angeles County may serve as a cautionary tale for Ohio. Four years ago, the county’s own juvenile justice reform working group made similar proposals in a plan called “Youth Justice Reimagined.” Like in Ohio, one of the centerpieces of the reform was to decentralize the county’s juvenile halls and replace them with “smaller, more homelike ‘safe and secure healing centers,’” according to the Pasadena Star-News.

Then last year the county reopened the previously shuttered Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, reasoning that consolidating youths into the facility would let the county system operate more efficiently. Officials are still trying to lower the number of young people at the hall, but violence and drugs have proliferated, youths report feeling unsafe and the threat of another shutdown looms constantly.

Read the full article about juvenile justice reforms by Jamiles Lartey at The Marshall Project.