NCJ Number
167136
Date Published
1997
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This description of the activities of the West Virginia Juvenile Justice Committee/Facilities Review Panel from its beginning in 1978 to its end on June 30, 1997 concludes that the committee was so effective and efficient in improving children's services in West Virginia that the legislature should establish a similarly structured agency to carry on the committee's past functions and address emerging challenges.
Abstract
The committee has consisted of a rotating group of five volunteers with expertise in children's issues, appointed by the West Virginia Supreme Court and supported by a small staff with a limited budget. The committee's work has had a significant impact in the State and has received national recognition. The efforts have focused on public correctional facilities, community-based corrections, children in public mental health institutions, private child care centers and group homes, emergency children's shelters, and out-of-state settings. The committee was unable to complete work on six projects; these related to the factors contributing to out-of-state commitment, the River Park psychiatric hospital, commitments to the West Virginia Industrial Home, labor law and child welfare facilities, the runaway shelter called patchwork, and Miracle Meadows School. Appended lists of reports placed with the State's Archives and History agency