NCJ Number
173273
Date Published
1994
Length
119 pages
Annotation
Juvenile crime in South Carolina is skyrocketing, more children are committing more serious and violent offenses, and more young people are being released from detention only to become involved in further criminal activity.
Abstract
The juvenile crime crisis in South Carolina has many causes, including a 100-percent increase in delinquency referrals over the past 10 years, a 52-percent increase in the proportion of referrals involving serious and violent offenses, lack of community alternatives to institutionalizing juveniles, budget limitations, inconsistent dispositions by judges, overcrowding in juvenile correctional facilities, and inadequate use of Medicaid and other Federal dollars to enhance community programming for juveniles. Recognizing the juvenile crime crisis, the Juvenile Justice Task Force was created in 1992 to evaluate South Carolina's juvenile justice system and develop recommendations to improve it. After a year of deliberations, the task force produced a blueprint for action with the following key elements: consistent system for classifying offenders based on risk, system to assess child and family needs and provide planned programming to meet those needs, community-based classification system to reduce the need for secure beds, cap on secure bed spaces in conjunction with developing more community alternatives, comprehensive array of services, system to evaluate program effectiveness on an annual basis, and projection of expenditures necessary to fund the juvenile justice system of the future. The 18 recommendations made by the task force are included, and juvenile offender trends in South Carolina are examined. Appendixes provide additional information on the Children's Code in South Carolina, the task force process and findings, juvenile assessment, and juvenile justice programs and services. 61 notes, 12 tables, 10 figures, and 3 maps