Why is the juvenile justice system failing girls?

More than 250,000 girls were arrested in the United States in 2013, according to FBI records. How do girls end up in the juvenile justice system? What happens after they are arrested? And what is being done to help them?

These are a few of the questions Web content editor Eileen Rivers is exploring in a three-part audio series on the juvenile justice system and how it's failing girls.

Join us for a live discussion

Share your thoughts and experiences during a live chat today at 2 p.m. ET. below. You can use the comments section of the page or Twitter using #usatjusticechat.

Chat participants

Andrea Powell is the co-founder and executive director of FAIR Girls, an organization that works to prevent sex trafficking and exploitation of girls in the United States and in Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Russia and Uganda. She is the FAIR Girls' chief liaison to the District of Columbia's anti-trafficking task force and has trained hundreds of people, including federal and local law enforcement, service providers and teachers, on how to identify and assist child victims of sex and labor trafficking.

Eliza Steele is a senior monitor with the Maryland Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit, an independent unit that monitors and reports on facilities operated or licensed by the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. Her unit promotes improving the juvenile justice system to meet the needs of Maryland's youth, families and communities.

Richard Ross is a photographer, researcher and professor of art who is based in Santa Barbara, Calif. His most recent work, the In Justice series, turns a lens on the placement and treatment of American juveniles housed in facilities that treat, confine, assist and punish them. With two books and traveling exhibitions of the work, Ross collaborates with juvenile justice stakeholders, using the images as a catalyst for change.

Eileen Rivers is Web content editor for USA TODAY's Editorial Page and spent eight years at The Washington Post as a copy editor and also wrote and reported for the Metro, Real Estate and Arts sections. She is a former Arabic linguist. She will be moderating the chat.

Part 1: Lockup

The first episode focuses on girls getting caught in a juvenile justice system made for boys. Join Rivers as she visits a Maryland detention facility and talks to officials, advocates and one girl in the system. Click to listen or download the podcast to take it on the go:

Part 2: Trafficking isn't just an international disease

The second episode will be posted Monday. Rivers will explore how sex trafficking in America feeds the juvenile justice system, and what can be done to break the cycle. We hear from advocates and a survivor. Click to listen or download the podcast to take it on the go:

Part 3: Is legislation the answer?

The third episode will be posted Tuesday. It will examine what steps — in Congress and communities — can be taken to stop sex trafficking and how to best help survivors. Rivers talks to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., about the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, which the Senate passed Wednesday, and about the strides taken in her state, considered among the toughest in the country when it comes to combating trafficking. Click to listen or download the podcast to take it on the go: