Juvenile Confinement - Juveniles In Residential Placement

The almost 10,000 juveniles in jail and prison in 2003 were but a fraction of all juveniles in confinement. They represented those youths transferred to the jurisdiction of adult courts, usually by waiver or under statutorily mandated rules. In 2002 Juvenile Residential Facility Census, 2000: Selected Findings was published by the FIGURE 7.5
Juvenile arrest rates by offense and race, 1980–2002 [CONTINUED]
SOURCE: Howard N. Snyder, "The Decline in Juvenile Arrest Rates from the Mid-1990s through 2002 Was Proportionally Greater for Black Youth than White Youth," in Juvenile Arrests in 2002, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, September 2004, http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/204608.pdf (accessed April 3, 2005) Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Authored by Melissa Sickmund, this study reported that 110,284 offenders under the age of twenty-one were being held in public and private juvenile detention, correctional, and shelter facilities. This category excludes prisons and jails. In October 2000 there were 1,203 public and 1,848 private, residential facilities in the nation.

The vast majority of juveniles in residential placement were delinquents (96%), the rest were confined for status offenses, according to Sickmund in Juvenile Offenders in Residential Placement, 1997–1999 (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, March 2002). Status offenders are runaways, truants from school, youths who are beyond the control of their parents, curfew violators, and those who violate other noncriminal ordinances and rules. The largest number of youths in residential placement were held for burglary (11%), followed by two violent crime categories, aggravated assault (9%) and robbery (8%). Robbery involves the use or threat of force. Categories of offense with the greatest increase since 1997 were offenses against other persons (a 50% increase) and sexual assault (up 34%). Offenses against other persons, according to Sickmund, "include kidnapping, violent sex acts other than forcible rape (e.g., incest, sodomy), custody interference, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment, harassment, and attempts to commit any such acts." The greatest decreases were in status offenses (down 32%), in criminal homicide (down 21%), and robbery (down 13%). (See Table 7.7.)

The largest populations of juveniles in residential placement were in California, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and New York, in that order, according to Juvenile Residential Facility Census, 2000. (See Table 7.8.) Those five states housed 40.9% of all juveniles in residential detention in the United States in October 2000. Seventy percent of all juveniles were held in public and 30% in private facilities.

The 2000 survey of residential facilities showed that crowding is also an issue in juvenile confinement: 2,875 of 3,061 facilities reported on the availability of "standard beds," a category that excludes informal sleeping arrangements such as sofas, mattresses on the floor, and cots. Thirty-nine percent of all reporting facilities had fewer standard beds than inmates, 37% of public and 40% of private facilities. The most crowded conditions in public facilities were reported in Delaware and Rhode Island, where all public facilities had fewer beds than inmates. In Mississippi all private facilities reported a shortfall in beds for juveniles housed.

Placement Status

Juveniles in residential placement are classified by the OJJDP into three categories. The largest group in 1999, 73.8% of the confined youths, were committed by TABLE 7.4
Percent distribution of juveniles taken into police custody, 1972–2002 [By method of disposition]*
SOURCE: "Table 4.26. Percent Distribution of Juveniles Taken into Police Custody," in 2002 Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 2002, Bureau of Justice Statistics, August 2004, http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/pdf/t426.pdf (accessed April 3, 2005)

	Referred to juvenile court jurisdiction	Handled within department and released	Referred to criminal or adult court	Referred to other police agency	Referred to welfare agency
1972	50.8%	45.0%	1.3%	1.6%	1.3%
1973	49.5	45.2	1.5	2.3	1.4
1974	47.0	44.4	3.7	2.4	2.5
1975	52.7	41.6	2.3	1.9	1.4
1976	53.4	39.0	4.4	1.7	1.6
1977	53.2	38.1	3.9	1.8	3.0
1978	55.9	36.6	3.8	1.8	1.9
1979	57.3	34.6	4.8	1.7	1.6
1980	58.1	33.8	4.8	1.7	1.6
1981	58.0	33.8	5.1	1.6	1.5
1982	58.9	32.5	5.4	1.5	1.6
1983	57.5	32.8	4.8	1.7	3.1
1984	60.0	31.5	5.2	1.3	2.0
1985	61.8	30.7	4.4	1.2	1.9
1986	61.7	29.9	5.5	1.1	1.8
1987	62.0	30.3	5.2	1.0	1.4
1988	63.1	29.1	4.7	1.1	1.9
1989	63.9	28.7	4.5	1.2	1.7
1990	64.5	28.3	4.5	1.1	1.6
1991	64.2	28.1	5.0	1.0	1.7
1992	62.5	30.1	4.7	1.1	1.7
1993	67.3	25.6	4.8	0.9	1.5
1994	63.2	29.5	4.7	1.0	1.7
1995	65.7	28.4	3.3	0.9	1.7
1996	68.6	23.3	6.2	0.9	0.9
1997	66.9	24.6	6.6	0.8	1.1
1998	69.2	22.2	6.8	0.9	1.0
1999	69.2	22.5	6.4	1.0	0.8
2000	70.8	20.3	7.0	1.1	0.8
2001	72.4	19.0	6.5	1.4	0.7
2002	72.8	18.1	7.0	1.4	0.7
Note: These data include all offenses except traffic and neglect cases.
*Because of rounding, percents may not add to 100.

juvenile courts. Most of the rest, 25.2%, were detained and represented a transitory population. Some of these juveniles may well have ended up in jails and prisons later. They were in residential placement awaiting their hearings, waiting for the disposition of their cases, or waiting to be transferred to some other kind of facility. The remaining 1% of residents were in juvenile confinement voluntarily as a consequence of so-called diversion agreements. Under such agreements a juvenile may opt to enter a juvenile facility voluntarily in lieu of judicial proceedings in juvenile court. The offender profiles of those committed and those detained were quite similar in most regards. A smaller percentage of detainees were being held for offenses against persons than those committed (29.1% versus 36.8%). Detainees were also proportionately less involved in property offenses (25.9% versus the committed population's 30.5%). A significantly higher proportion of detainees were being held for technical violations, which involve such matters as parole violations and failure to follow court orders. Those in juvenile homes voluntarily, the diversionary group, were proportionately less delinquent than either the committed or the detained population (71.1% versus 95.6% of those committed). This small group, however, had a disproportionately high number (28.9%) in the "status offense" category—youths who run away, fail to attend school, are incorrigible, etc.