Reducing the Use of Secure Detention in Broward County, Florida (From Reforming Juvenile Detention: No More Hidden Closets, P 69-96, 1994, Ira M Schwartz and William H Barton, eds. -- See NCJ-166824)

• NCJ Number: 166829
• Author(s): W H Barton; I M Schwartz; F A Orlando
• Date Published: 1994
• Length: 28 pages
• Sale Source: Ohio State University Press
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper discusses the context, process, and outcomes of the Broward County Detention Project (juvenile detention).

Abstract

It focuses on what the project accomplished, how the project was able to achieve what it did, what prevented it from being more successful, and the stability of the changes. In Florida as a whole, the years 1982 to 1988 began with a system that detained a large portion of its delinquency referrals. During that period, the volume of delinquency referrals increased sharply, and the system attempted to continue its routinely high rates of detention. Secure detention facilities became overcrowded, and districts tried to adapt by transferring more cases to home detention. The strains in Broward County were even more extreme, resulting in a crisis situation by 1988. Broward made major changes in its detention practices between 1987 and 1990, reducing the use of secure detention by increasing the use of home detention and other alternatives. These changes were not accompanied by any increased risk to public safety. Moreover, the changes did not involve increased costs to the system and may have saved the county the major expense of building additional detention bed capacity. To this extent, the project was successful. The inability of the project to enlist judicial cooperation or to affect length of stay, however, prevented the immediate achievement of even greater changes in the county's detention practices. 5 tables, 7 notes, and a 6-item bibliography