WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are unveiling plans to improve the quality of education for roughly 60,000 juveniles confined in youth detention centers.

The pair on Monday toured a school for confined youth in Northern Virginia. They say improving the quality of education for all offenders — but particularly younger ones — has proven to be one of the best methods for preventing returns to prison.

The new policy sets guiding principles for improving education for young people in correctional facilities and emphasizes the states’ obligations for educating students with disabilities there. It also clarifies that juveniles in correctional facilities may be eligible for federal Pell Grants if they meet other criteria.

The program is an outgrowth of President Barack Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative.