NCJ Number
202228
Date Published
October 2001
Length
73 pages
Annotation
This report provides community leaders, policymakers, community agencies, government agencies, legislators, service providers, professional organizations, and child advocates with a conceptual overview of various areas in juvenile justice that require reform, as well as reform recommendations.
Abstract
Juvenile justice in the United States formally began with the Illinois Juvenile Court Act of 1899, which separated children and adolescents from the adults within the penal system with the intent to educate and rehabilitate rather than to punish. However, over the many years and changes in laws, court rulings and public attitudes, the juvenile courts in most jurisdictions operate today much like criminal courts do with a scarcity of services and treatment. These inadequacies in the juvenile justice system in the United States have created the motivation for change. This report was produced by the Task Force on Juvenile Justice Reform of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACP) to improve the juvenile justice system, in order that it becomes responsive to children and adolescents. It offers an overview of 13 areas within the juvenile justice system that necessitate reform and identifies recommendations that can serve as a basis of reform in each of these areas. These areas include: (1) forensic evaluations; (2) competency to stand trial; (3) standards for juvenile detention and confinement facilities; (4) healthcare; (5) females; (6) disproportionate minority confinement; (7) seclusion and restraint standards in juvenile corrections; (8) meeting the educational needs of incarcerated youth; (9) waiver of juvenile cases to criminal court; (10) juvenile sex offenders; (11) juvenile death sentence; (12) alternative to adjudication, such as drug courts, peer courts, and mental health courts; and (13) the Island Youth Programs in Galveston (model program).