The first time L.J. was sent to the juvenile detention center outside of Philadelphia, he'd been caught hanging out with friends in an abandoned building. After that, he went in and out of custody for minor offenses throughout his teenage years.

Detention was a challenging place to grow up.

"It's like a little jungle," he said. "Everybody wants to be tough. Everybody wants to fight. It's a lot to go through."

One particularly long stint lasted about six months before he was sent to a state facility in southern Pennsylvania for boys in the delinquency system.

But more than half of the 11 months he spent locked up didn't count toward any kind of sentence. It was "dead time."

In the adult system, people awaiting trial get credit for "time served," with any months that they spend in jail

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