This thesis explores the relationship between elected officials, juvenile justice advocates, non-profit organizations, and major juvenile justice reform laws. This thesis utilizes a combination of top-down and history-from-below historical approaches to examine the major changes in juvenile justice reform efforts. The research includes data from the department of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention, annual reports from Charlotte-based non-profit organizations, and oral history interviews with those affected by the North Carolina juvenile justice system. Through these methods this thesis shows a narrative of juvenile justice reform efforts that attempted to address many issues present in the North Carolina juvenile justice system like recidivism, youth development center populations, and disproportionate minority contact. Through this narrative this thesis shows that these efforts can be associated with the successful reduction in recidivism rates and YDC or youth development center populations between 1990-2021, however, racial disparities remain present within the North Carolina juvenile justice system. One specific contribution of this thesis is the inclusion of oral history interviews involving non-profit leaders and those affected by the North Carolina juvenile justice system, enabling a new viewpoint through which scholars can observe how the juvenile justice system impacts others. This research can be used to increase awareness of the racial disparities within the North Carolina juvenile justice system and can be used to highlight potential avenues of further research, like the impact of trauma on the minds of adolescents contained within carceral infrastructure.