NCJ Number
73847
Date Published
1980
Length
59 pages
Annotation
This report examines in detail the laws of the 50 States as they relate to the deinstitutionalization of status offenders and contrasts current laws with pre-1974 laws regarding the separation of status offenders from delinquents.
Abstract
An introductory section discusses some of the major changes that occurred in the past decade in the area of deinstitutionalization. Since the establishment of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), 47 States have agreed to the requirements outlined by the legislation. In addition, only 11 States classify status and criminal offenders under the same category compared to 25 States in 1972. A total of 21 States are in statutory agreement with the act's deinstitutionalization mandates of nonsecure detention for status offenders, and 23 States have statutes that prohibit the sentencing of status offenders to secure juvenile correctional facilities. This report contains information that was collected from the most recent supplements available, which in most cases included 1979 legislative changes. Legislative changes enacted in 1980 in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Washington are given. The report also emphasizes comparisons among States by supplying the citations and exact quotations of the relevant statutes from all 50 States. A chart that analyzes State statutes concerning the deinstitutionalization of status offenders and an explanation of chart terms are appended.