Custody Data (1997-Present)

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Serving Children, Families, and Communities

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Q:	Were most juvenile offenders held in secure facilities in 1997?
A:	The majority of juveniles in residential placement (71%) were confined during afterschool hours by at least one locked door or gate.

Security status of juveniles by facility size, 1997

Facility size	All facilities				Public facilities				Private facilities
Facility size	Staff secure		Locked		Staff secure		Locked		Staff secure		Locked

Total	29	%	71	%	14	%	86	%	70	%	30	%
Fewer than 31 residents	60		40		39		61		76		24
31-110 residents	37		63		21		79		72		28
111-200 residents	21		79		12		88		60		40
201-350 residents	13		87		3		97		55		45
More than 350 residents	8		92		2		98		71		29

Note: To protect the confidentiality of juvenile residents all published data from the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP) are rounded to the nearest multiple of three. Each cell is rounded independently, without consideration as to row or column totals. As a result, in many tables, the internal cells do not add to the marginal totals. Rates and percentages presented from CJRP are also based on rounded totals. More information on this rounding rule is available on the CJRP Databook Web site.

[ Excel file ]

Juvenile residential placement facilities vary in their degree of security. The use of fences, walls, and surveillance equipment is increasingly common in juvenile facilities, although security hardware in juvenile facilities is generally not as elaborate as that found in adult jails and prisons. In fact, national accreditation standards for juvenile facilities express a preference for relying on staff, rather than on hardware to provide security. The guiding principle is to house juvenile offenders in the "least restrictive placement alternative." Staff security measures include perimeter checks, periodically taking counts of the youth in custody, using classification and separation procedures, and maintaining an adequate ratio of security staff to juveniles.
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 October 29, 1997."
The vast majority of juveniles in public facilities were held under locked arrangements (86%). In private facilities, the majority of juveniles were confined by means of staff security only (70%). Overall, as facility size increased, the proportion of juveniles held under staff secure arrangements decreased. Sixty percent of juveniles held in facilities housing fewer than 31 residents were held under staff secure arrangements compared with 37% of those in facilities housing 31-110 residents and just 8% of those in facilities housing more than 350 residents.

Internet citation: OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book. Online. Available: http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/ojstatbb/corrections/qa08511.asp?qaDate=20010228. Released on February 28, 2001.

Adapted from Sickmund, M. (2000). Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement 1997. Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice.

Data Source: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement 1997 [machine-readable data files]. Washington, D.C.: OJJDP.