NCJ Number
170483
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 59 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1998) Pages: 58,60
Date Published
1998
Length
2 pages
Annotation
The trend toward tougher penalties on juvenile offenders has resulted in a sharp philosophical shift in the planning and design of juvenile correctional facilities.
Abstract
Until recently, the underlying philosophy in programming, planning, and designing juvenile correctional facilities focused on intervention and treatment. Normalized housing environments, in which young people moved outside the housing unit for all activities, differentiated juvenile correctional facilities from their adult counterparts. With the increase in the juvenile justice population and the scarcity of funds for capital construction and operations, new juvenile correctional facilities are designed to be larger, more able to accommodate growth, and constructed of cost-effective and durable materials. Yet, these larger facilities must be designed to be managed without increasing staff ratios, to achieve a normative environment, and to provide cost-effective treatment programs. Since an increasing number of juveniles are being adjudicated as adults, transitional facilities have emerged as a new classification of juvenile correctional facilities to serve young people convicted and tried as adults. The authors conclude architects and correctional administrators of large juvenile facilities with higher levels of security face funding challenges, and they note examples of juvenile correctional facilities in Colorado that work. 1 photograph