NCJ Number
92769
Date Published
1983
Length
301 pages
Annotation
Youth advocates, parents and juveniles, and corrections officials testified on the continued detention of juveniles in adult jails and lockups in violation of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act's mandate to separate juveniles from adult in secure facilities.
Abstract
The committee chairman opened the hearings by citing that some 500,000 juveniles today are detained in facilities used to house adults, many of whom have not been charged with a criminal offense or are merely status offenders. The director of the Youth Law Center, a public interest law firm in San Francisco, highlighted such problems in describing cases where a deputy jailor sexually assaulted a runaway girl in an Ohio jail, teenagers jailed for possession of smoking tobacco and not paying several traffic tickets in Idaho were brutally assaulted by other inmates, and a runaway boy committed suicide in a Kentucky jail. This witness advocated removal of all juveniles from jails and submitted photographs and other materials to illustrate jail conditions. Parents of children involved in these cases and juveniles who had been locked up in the same jails described their reactions to these incidents. County corrections officials from Pennsylvania and Virginia commented on difficulties in jails -- traditionally underfunded and understaffed -- face in separating juveniles from adults, but agreed that juveniles should not be housed in adult correctional facilities. A professor of law involved in youth advocacy reviewed Virginia's efforts to remove juveniles from adult facilities and criticized the lack of correctional programs for juveniles with learning disabilities and emotional disorders. The final witness, director of a university research center, reviewed successful projects undertaken by different jurisdictions to achieve complete removal of juveniles from adult facilities and their cost implications. Prepared statements are included.