NCJ Number
190659
Date Published
2001
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This section of the "Strategic Planning Master Notebook" for jurisdictional teams provides a notetaking guide on the use and impact of juvenile secure detention and a handout paper on "Juvenile Detention as Process and Place."
Abstract
The note-taking guide focuses on the serious consequences of secure juvenile detention for detained youth, the juvenile justice system, and the community at large, as well as the consequences of unnecessary secure confinement for detained youth. The note-taking guide also encompasses the characteristics of youth in secure detention, the consequences of unnecessary secure detention for the juvenile justice system, the core purposes of secure detention, the characteristics of unnecessary detention, and the composition and agenda of the core working group engaged in strategic planning for juvenile detention. The paper on "Juvenile Detention as Process and Place" first defines juvenile detention to include the following characteristics: temporary custody, safe custody, restricted environment, community protection, pending legal action, helpful services, and clinical observation and assessment. This is followed by a review of the history of confusion of function that has long plagued juvenile detention. The authors advise that this confusion linked to contradictory definitions of detention is the central problem for juvenile detention administrators. Conflicts between the policies of preventive detention and therapeutic detention are discussed, followed by a presentation of the authors' argument that preventive detention and therapeutic detention are not mutually exclusive. Next, detention as place (physical structure of detention) and process (experience) are discussed. Other issues of juvenile detention discussed are graduated sanctions and continuum of care. A table shows a sample continuum of care. 46 references