No Place for a Child - Children in Adult Jails in North Carolina

• NCJ Number: 88725
• Author(s): M B Durham
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 48 pages
• Grant Number(s): 80-JS-AX-0011
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Corporate Author: North Carolina Governor's Advisory Council on Children and Youth
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

North Carolina laws that determine when children should be held in secure detention should be made more objective and specific, so that children will not be locked up unnecessarily.

Abstract

Specific criteria should be followed, which will result in the release or placement in nonsecure detention of 60 percent of the children now being locked up. No additional detention centers should be built. North Carolina should focus on the use of home detention, nonsecure alternatives to detention such as shelter care and emergency foster care, and short-term holding homes and transportation arrangements for rural counties with infrequent cases needing secure custody. The 1983 State law prohibiting incarceration of children in adult jails should be upheld. Study data, 11 end notes, and 15 references are supplied. Descriptions of nonresidential and residential programs for juveniles are appended. (Author summary modified)