NCJ Number
172677
Journal
Corrections Management Quarterly Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Dated: Summer 1998 Pages: 79-89
Date Published
1998
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the history of standards in criminal and juvenile justice and previews an ongoing federally funded initiative to develop performance-based standards in juvenile detention and correctional institutions as a necessary first step in ensuring that juvenile corrections achieves both public safety and rehabilitation.
Abstract
The promulgation of juvenile corrections standards began in 1974 through the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. Today's accreditation standards focus on process rather than outcome, involve voluntary participation, and use one-time audits conducted by practitioners in the field. Standards have changed over the years as practitioners and experts have looked for meaningful ways to improve the operation of juvenile facilities. The business sector has also championed performance measures. In 1994 the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention adopted the recommendations of the Conditions of Confinement Study and funded a three-phase research and development project for juvenile correctional standards. The project consists of development of standards from December 1995 to August 1996, field testing of the standards and the data collection instrument from September 1996 through October 1997, and implementation of standards in as many jurisdictions as funding permits from November 1997 to November 1999. The resulting performance-based standards can serve both as goals for programs to attain and as benchmarks against which their progress can be measured, because conformity to procedural standards alone does not guarantee successful results in rehabilitative programs. 7 references