Custody Data (1997-Present)

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

Printer-friendly

Q:	How long do juveniles stay in juvenile residential placement facilities?
A:	Half of committed residents had been in placement longer than 113 days when the census was taken. Half of detained juveniles had been in custody fewer than 18 days.

Median days in placement since admission, 1997

Facility security status	Total	Placement status
Facility security status	Total	Diversion agreement not to adjudicate	Detained	Committed

All facilities	71	53	18	113
Staff secure	104	111	24	113
Locked	57	16	17	113

Public	57	13	17	107
Staff secure	78	16	17	86
Locked	54	12	17	114

Private	111	125	26	124
Staff secure	120	126	28	130
Locked	90	120	23	106

Notes: The "median days in placement" statistic indicates that half the residents stayed fewer days and half stayed more days.

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 ]

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 (October 29, 1997). 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 147 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 71 days (median).
Residents’ time in the facility varied by their placement status. Half of committed residents had been in placement longer than 113 days. Those convicted in criminal court tended to have been in placement longer than those committed following juvenile court adjudication. Half of those committed following criminal court conviction had been in custody longer than 166 days; half of those committed by juvenile court had been in placement fewer 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 18 days. And as with committed juveniles, those detained by juvenile court had been in placement fewer days than youth detained awaiting transfer to criminal court or awaiting a criminal court hearing. Half of juveniles detained by juvenile courts had been in custody fewer than 16 days. For detained transfers the figure was 58 days. Among juveniles in placement under a diversion agreement, half had been in the facility longer than 53 days.
Time in placement was also related to whether juveniles were held in a public or private facility. In public facilities, half of committed juveniles had been in placement longer than 107 days. In private facilities, half of committed juveniles had been in the facility longer than 124 days. The same pattern was found for the detained population: juveniles detained in private facilities had been in the facility longer on average than those detained in public facilities. Half of those detained in public facilities had been in custody fewer than 17 days. In comparison, half of youth detained in private facilities had been in placement longer than 26 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 October 29, 1997.” 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 public and private facilities were combined. In public facilities, the median time in placement was 86 days for juveniles confined under staff secure arrangements compared with 114 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 (130 days versus 106 days).

Internet citation: OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book. Online. Available: http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/ojstatbb/corrections/qa08517.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.