• Information on length of stay is key to understanding the justice system’s handling of juveniles in residential placement. Developing information on the length of time juveniles spend in residential placement, however, is a difficult task. Ideally, length of stay would be calculated for each individual juvenile by combining their days of stay in residential placement from their first admission to their last release relating to a particular case. These individual lengths of placement would then be averaged for different release cohorts of juveniles. The Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement captures information on the number of days since admission to a particular facility for each juvenile in residential placement. These data represent the number of days the juvenile had been in the facility up to the reference date of the census (February 22, 2006). Because the data are not based on a release cohort, however, complete lengths of stay cannot be determined. The data reflect only a juvenile’s placement at one facility and not multiple placements in multiple facilities. The data provide an overall profile of the time juveniles had been in the facility at the time of the census—a 1-day snapshot of time spent in the facility.
• Overall, at the time of the census, residents had been in the facility an average of 149 days since their admission. A few residents for whom very long stays were reported, however, skew this average (mean). In fact, half of all residents had been in placement fewer than 65 days (median).
• Residents’ time in the facility varied by their placement status. Half of committed residents had been in placement longer than 112 days. Time in placement for detained juveniles was substantially shorter than for committed juveniles. Half of all detained juveniles had been in custody fewer than 16 days.
• Time in placement was also related to whether juveniles were held in a state, local or private facility. In state facilities, half of committed juveniles had been in placement longer than 140 days. In local facilities, half of committed juveniles had been in placement longer than 49 days. In private facilities, half of committed juveniles had been in the facility longer than 120 days. Among the detained population: juveniles detained in private facilities had been in the facility longer on average than those detained in state or local facilities. Half of those detained in state facilities had been in custody fewer than 14 days. In comparison, half of youth detained in private facilities had been in placement longer than 22 days.
• Time in placement within public and private facilities not only varied with the placement status of facility residents, but also with their security status. For each juvenile in residential placement, the Census of Juveniles Residential Placement asked respondents about the “locked doors and/or gates [that] confined THIS young person within the facility and its grounds during the afterschool, daytime hours on February 22, 2006.” Committed juveniles showed the greatest time in placement variation between locked and staff secure settings within public and private facilities. This difference washed out, however, when states, local and private facilities were combined. In state facilities, the median time in placement was 121 days for juveniles confined under staff secure arrangements compared with 140 days for those held under locked arrangements. In private facilities, however, the median time in placement was greater for those held under staff secure than locked arrangements (121days versus 119 days).

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