NCJ Number
205842
Date Published
2004
Length
102 pages
Annotation
This 2003 Annual Report of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ) focuses on the rationale for and the manifestations of juvenile detention reform in counties throughout the country.
Abstract
The CJJ is a national nonprofit association that consists of 56 governor-appointed advisory groups on juvenile justice that represent the U.S. States, Territories, and District of Columbia. The introductory chapter of CJJ's 2003 Annual Report notes that each year between 300,000 and 600,000 boys and girls pass through detention facilities, which are charged with the temporary and safe custody of youth. Some youth spend only a day or two in detention before being released to their families and communities. Others spend weeks and months locked in detention for a variety of reasons, many of which are not directly related to the severity of their alleged offenses. In some cases, there is no objective means of determining which youth pose a threat to public safety. In other cases, youth end up in detention because there is no suitable family or community-based program to which they can be safely released while awaiting their hearings. As counties detain more and more youth, facilities become overcrowded, which poses many risks to the well-being of the juvenile detainees, including unsanitary living quarters, inadequate education, meager medical and mental health treatment, sexual exploitation, boredom, anger, depression, and physical danger. Rather than continuing to build new and expanded juvenile detention facilities to house an increasing number of juveniles, counties and juvenile justice systems across the Nation are refusing to build new facilities under a commitment to provide alternatives to detention and develop more restrictive criteria for sending juveniles to secure detention. Among the counties that have undertaken various detention reforms are King County, WA; Broward County, FL; Cook County, IL; Tarant County, TX; and Multnomah County, OR. This Annual Report profiles the juvenile detention reforms that are underway in these counties. Among the reform measures being instituted are the establishment of objective decisionmaking criteria and risk-assessment tools for juvenile detention, more rapid case processing, and the development of a range of community-based alternatives to detention. The recommendations offered at the conclusion of this report emphasize turning away from costly and ineffective detention policies through a commitment to modifying every stage of case processing that leads to unwarranted detentions and providing effective alternatives to detention that ensure community safety and the welfare of the juveniles involved. 9 resources, a 39-item bibliography, and a list of CJJ reports