NCJ Number
143428
Date Published
1984
Length
36 pages
Annotation
The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 requires States to monitor jails, detention facilities, correctional facilities, and nonsecure facilities to ensure that the act's provisions for deinstitutionalization and separation are being met.
Abstract
Monitoring must be completed to ensure compliance with the act's three major components: deinstitutionalization of status offenders, separation of juveniles from adults, and removal of juveniles from jails by 1985. Other reasons for States to gather comprehensive data include monitoring progress toward achieving compliance with all provisions of the act, documenting noncompliance to facilitate legal and administrative enforcement, generating information used for planning purposes, monitoring compliance with State laws on deinstitutionalization, and providing information to advocacy organizations concerned with improving the juvenile justice system. Strategies for identifying the universe of facilities to be monitored can be implemented through the State Department of Corrections, State regulatory agencies, other Statewide agencies, municipal lockups, and specialized facilities. The recommended approach for monitoring deinstitutionalization on-site consists of reviewing the admissions log book, checking secondary sources, addressing the problem of vague charges, and addressing the valid court order exception. Onsite monitoring is also essential to ensure compliance with the separation requirement and for removal. 2 appendixes