NCJ Number
114369
Date Published
1988
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This report examines decisionmaking responsibility for placement, sentence length and discharge within State juvenile justice systems and highlights innovative State approaches to juvenile disposition and sentencing.
Abstract
Data were gathered from a 50-State survey of legislative staff. The findings revealed that States generally provide juvenile justice decisionmakers with a wide range of disposition options. However, States have clearly moved toward commitment procedures that limit the court's discretion or shift placement, sentence, and discharge decisions to others. The report describes specific prohibitions which focus on age and the possibility of placement in a secure correctional institution, procedural checks and balances, and dividing decisionmaking between courts, youth agencies, and a parole board. Also discussed are sentencing guidelines in juvenile courts. The report emphasizes that shaping a continuum of youth corrections options is a major policy challenge facing State legislatures. Six references, tables, and a list of juvenile justice statutory citations.