NCJ Number
79027
Date Published
1978
Length
4 pages
Annotation
A representation of the National Network of Runaway and Youth Services comments on the process of deinstitutionalization of status offenders under the 1974 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.
Abstract
The National Network of Runaway and Youth Services is a nationwide association of over 120 neighborhood-based programs and coalitions engaged in providing easily accessible and integrated services to youth, their families, and their communities. The deinstitutionalization mandate of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act unequivocally provides for the coordination and maximum use of existing community programs in lieu of institutionalization, yet many States and localities have insisted on the time-consuming and costly process of developing new programs with limited services, while existing and experienced youth-serving community organizations are ignored. The Act also instructs States to use a large portion of formula grant monies on services that use enumerated 'advanced techniques.' However, with some exceptions, States have been creating typical mass or uniform programs that fail in dealing with the complex multiple needs of youth. 'Piggy-back' laws have also obstructed effective services to status offenders. Such laws provide that a person who has been previously adjudicated as a status offender may be charged with delinquency for the alleged commission of a subsequent status offense and often be remanded to a training school. Further, in many jurisdictions, juvenile court judges retain the discretion to mandate the placement of a status offender in a specified facility. Also, arrest and detention continue to precede the entrance of status offenders into the network of community-based services. Such problems could most easily be eliminated by removing status offenders from the jurisdiction of the juvenile court.