PRESS RELEASE: New Research Reveals a National Legacy of Forgotten Children

The Center for Youth Justice‘s Forgotten Children Initiative identifies burial sites or cemeteries associated with 40 correctional institutions across 29 states—more than half of all U.S. states—with more than 1,000 children identified to date

WASHINGTON, D.C. — New research by the Forgotten Children Initiative of the Center for Youth Justice at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy has identified burial sites associated with 40 institutions in 29 states—more than half of the states in the nation—revealing a national legacy of children who died in custody and whose lives and deaths were largely lost from the nation’s historical record.

The report, titled The Forgotten Children: Mapping a National Legacy of Youth Who Died in Custody, was released during Georgetown University’s Janet Reno Forum. It builds on the discovery announced in July 2025 of an abandoned burial ground at Maryland’s House of Reformation for Colored Children, where research indicates that more than 230 Black children were buried in the late 1800s and as recently as 1939. The research also builds on earlier knowledge of burial sites associated with youth institutions, including Florida’s Dozier School for Boys and a largely overlooked burial site associated with the Hudson Training School in New York.

When the Forgotten Children Initiative began in February 2026, burial sites associated with youth institutions were known in only a few states. The Initiative set out to ask a larger question: How widespread was this history, and how many children who died in the custody of youth institutions were buried at or near the places where they were held?

So far, the research has identified burial sites or cemeteries associated with 40 correctional institutions across 29 states—more than half of all U.S. states. Across those sites, researchers have identified over 1,000 children who were buried at or near the institutions where they were held, with children buried as recently as the 1950s.

The institutions represented in the research span more than two centuries. In some cases, the institutions where children died—or successor institutions on the same sites—remain in operation today.

The findings reveal that the story uncovered in Maryland was not an isolated tragedy. It is part of a much larger national history.

“When we began the Forgotten Children Initiative, we knew about a small number of places where children who died in custody had been buried. We wanted to understand whether Maryland, Florida and New York were isolated stories or part of something larger,” said Marc Schindler, Research Professor of the Practice and Senior Fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Youth Justice, and founder of the Forgotten Children Initiative. “What we have found is a national tragedy. We now have evidence of burial sites associated with 40 youth institutions across more than half of the states in the country. Our investigation and research is continuing, but what we already know is that behind every location on this map are children whose lives deserve to be remembered and whose families have a right to know what happened to their long-lost relatives.”

The Initiative uses the word forgotten with care. These children were not necessarily forgotten by their families, but rather by state institutions and systems entrusted with their care. Many were loved and remembered by parents and relatives. In some cases, however, the failure of institutions to adequately document and communicate children’s deaths appears to have severed those connections so completely that the children disappeared from their families’ histories as well. Families today are sometimes learning for the first time that a child was part of their family, was sent to an institution, died there, and was buried there.

“We know that many of these children were loved and remembered by their families, and we honor the families who carried their memories,” Schindler said. “When we call them forgotten children, we are speaking about children who were lost from institutional records, public history, and the nation’s collective memory. In some cases, they were even lost from their own family trees—not because their families stopped caring, but because the connections were never preserved. Our work is to restore those connections: to find the children, recover their stories, reconnect them with their families and communities, and ensure that they are remembered and honored. We are also looking ahead to changing current policies and practices so that children in youth systems across the country today and in the future are treated with respect and dignity, and are provided with what they and their families need.”

Finding the Children Is Only the Beginning

In Maryland, finding the children was only the beginning. Through genealogical research, the Forgotten Children Initiative has identified living relatives of children buried at the House of Reformation and brought families back into connection with children who had been lost from their family histories. Those families are helping determine how their loved ones should be remembered, honored, and memorialized, as well as advocating to improve today’s juvenile justice system. The Initiative recommends bringing that same family-centered approach to the children identified through its national research.

“When we found these children, we didn’t just find names on old records. We found members of our families who had been missing for generations. We have an opportunity now to know them, to honor them, and to make sure they are never lost again.” — Dorothy Givens, niece of two brothers incarcerated at the House of Reformation, Fred Ames, Jr., a child who died at the House of Reformation, and Robert Ames, who was also incarcerated at the House of Reformation and survived; and member of the Maryland Commission on the House of Reformation & Instruction for Colored Children.

“For too long, these children had no voice in what happened to them, and their families had no voice either. Finding our relatives has given us the opportunity to know them, to tell their stories, and to decide how they should be remembered. These are our children, and we should be the ones deciding what happens next.” — Phyllis Hammond, niece of Amos Hammond, a child who died at the House of Reformation; and member of the Maryland Commission on the House of Reformation & Instruction for Colored Children.

The Initiative is making the research available through a new national map documenting the burial sites identified to date. The map is intended as a starting point for further research and community engagement—not simply a catalog of burial grounds, but a tool for recovering the identities and stories of the children buried at these sites.

The Forgotten Children Initiative is calling on historians, researchers, public officials, families, genealogists, communities, and advocates to help identify the children represented on the map. Together, it is our responsibility to recover their stories and find other burial sites which have not yet been identified. The Initiative’s research is part of an ongoing investigation to discover all forgotten children in burial sites of incarcerated youth across the nation.

Somewhere on this map may be your family.

The research also raises broader questions about America’s history of youth confinement and the continuing legacy of those institutions. Many of the sites represented in the research emerged from systems that confined children under conditions that reflected the racial and social inequalities of their eras. Understanding what happened to children who died in those institutions is essential to understanding the history—and continuing evolution—of youth justice in America.

The Forgotten Children Initiative’s goal is not simply to locate burial sites. It is to restore the identities and dignity of children whose lives were at risk of disappearing from history, reconnect them with their families and communities, ensure that they become part of the American story, and prevent systems serving youth and families today from repeating the practices of the past.

About the Forgotten Children Initiative

The Forgotten Children Initiative, housed within the Center for Youth Justice—a research center at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy-—is a national public scholarship project focused on unearthing the lives behind the lost burial sites of incarcerated youth. Through historical research, genealogy, family engagement, public history, and memorialization, the Initiative seeks to: recover the identities and stories of children who died in institutional custody; reconnect them with their families and communities; illuminate the history and continuing legacy of youth justice in America; turn historical truth into action; and help improve and reform the systems that serve children and families today.

Contact Marc Schindler (marc.schindler@georgetown.edu) with any questions.