Gov. Tom Wolf announced an agreement Monday with nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts to create a task force to study how the state handles justice system issues revolving around juveniles.

The governor said the initiative is aimed at looking at youths involved in the criminal justice system, and finding ways to prevent them from becoming further enmeshed and the means of rehabilitating them.

Although we have yet to see the details of how the task force would work, the idea is a good one.

A 2015 study by Anna Aizer and MIT economist Joseph Doyle Jr. found that youths who were incarcerated as juveniles are 23 percent more likely to end up in prison as adults than those who skipped jail due to a judge’s leniency.

Forty percent of youths who went into juvenile detention ended up in prison by age 25, the study found, and incarceration frequently reduced the likelihood of youths returning to school afterward.

A study the following year by Harvard Kennedy School’s Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management and the National Institute of Justice — the research and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice — found that youth prison models that emphasize confinement often exacerbate trauma for youths and prohibit positive growth.

That study also found that smaller, community-based facilities with more homelike atmospheres went further in encouraging rehabilitation.

Wolf noted that the state effort aims to ensure that youths involved in the criminal justice system come out of it “with the chance for a bright future.”

This is a great goal — but while we’re glad the task force’s efforts prioritize rehabilitation, it should also place an emphasis on stopping youths from getting involved in the criminal justice system in the first place.

Preventive medicine almost always is preferred to treating a symptom after the fact.

Although the task force has yet to be created, it’s good to see the effort is drawing the support and participation of both Democrats and Republicans in the state Legislature as well as members of the state’s justice system — including several judges.

There are few initiatives more worthy than ensuring the success of Pennsylvania’s youth. We look forward to learning more about the task force’s efforts.