NCJ Number
134277
Date Published
1990
Length
32 pages
Annotation
Information is provided concerning public and private residential facilities in Louisiana in 1989.
Abstract
Louisiana currently has 10 juvenile detention facilities in the State with a total detention bed capacity of 271. During this monitoring period, over 3,000 juveniles were held in detention facilities. As a result of final cap on the juvenile offender population set by the Federal court there was an immediate increase in the number of committed adjudicated delinquents awaiting admission to juvenile institutions. This court-ordered ceiling has had a negative impact on the juvenile detention facilities. They are now holding large numbers of juveniles post-adjudicatory in detention beds which are solely needed for pre-adjudicatory juveniles. However, one of the beneficial effects of the detention bed shortage is that law enforcement and the judiciary are only putting the most serious and repeat juvenile offenders in detention. This "forced intake screening" has resulted in a decrease to an already small number of status offenders who are sent to detention.