4.26 Dentention Facilities

A detention facility is a secure institution which is used for the temporary custody of juveniles accused or adjudicated of conduct subject to the jurisdiction of the family court over delinquency and who cannot be placed in an open setting. Detention facilities should be used to care for such juveniles following arrest, prior to adjudication, prior to disposition, and following disposition while awaiting transfer to the facility of placement, and may also be used for the temporary custody of such juveniles:

a. Pending a hearing to modify or enforce a dispositional order pursuant to Standards 3.189 and 3.1810;

b. Pending extradition pursuant to the interstate compact on juveniles; or

c. Pending return to a residential facility from which they have absconded following placement.

Detention facilities should be located within the community from which they draw their population. Such facilities should not be on the grounds of an institution used to house adults accused or convicted of committing a criminal offense.

Sources:

See generally National Council on Crime and Delinquency Standards and Guides for the Detention of Children and Youth (1961); Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, Planning and Design for Juvenile Justice, Part IV (1972); S. Norman, Detention Practice, (1960); Martarella v. Kelley, 349 F. Supp. 575 (S.D.N.Y. 1973); Institute of Judicial Administration/American Bar Association Joint Commission on Juvenile Justice Standards, Proposed Standards Relating to Architecture for Group Homes and Secure Detention and Correctional Facilities, Standard 7.4 (draft, 1976); and Proposed Standards Relating to Interim Status, Standard 10.2 (draft, 1975) [hereinafter cited as IJA/ABA, Interim Status]; National Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, Report of the Task Force on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Standard 22.3 (1976) [hereinafter cited as Report of the Task Force].

Commentary

This standard defines "detention facility" and narrowly defines the category of juveniles who may be held in such temporary custody. Under this standard, a "detention facility" is any locked or otherwise secure institution used for the temporary custody of juveniles. This standard limits those who may be placed in such facilities to those who are accused or adjudicated of a delinquent act, and who cannot be placed

in an open setting. The standard also recommends that juvenile detention facilities should be situated within the community of the juvenile placed there, and specifies that such facilities should never be on the same grounds as a jail or prison housing convicted or detained adults.

The National Advisory Committee intends that the temporary, "interim" detention of juveniles in secure facilities should occur only rarely, and that detention facilities should play a minor role in the juvenile process. Detention "should be brief, terribly selective and modest in its aims." Comment of Patricia Wald, IJA/ABA, Interim Status, supra at Standard 10.2. Accordingly, this standard does not authorize-and Standards 3.153 and 3.154 expressly prohibit-placing youths not adjudged or accused of delinquency in any secure. detention center. See Standards 3.153, 3.154 and Commentary. Standard 3.152 strictly limits the factual circumstances under which even those juveniles charged with delinquent acts may be detained in secure facilities. See Standard 3.152 and Commentary. To reinforce the principle that a youth's stay "in detention" should be brief, the family court must hear and resolve the petition expeditiously, see Standard 3.161, and the necessity for detention is subject to weekly reviews, see Standard 3.158. Thus, under these standards, secure detention facilities should play a minor role, and have a minimum of impact upon the total population of court-involved juveniles.

Although its use can and should be thus minimized, the detention facility remains the "gateway to the juvenile justice system for a group of offenders in the most serious trouble." Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, Study on Planning and Design for Juvenile Justice, supra. As of today, only four states prohibit absolutely the detention of juveniles in adult facilities. See Report of the Task Force, supra at Commentary to Standard 22.3; IJA/ABA, Interim Status, supra at Commentary to Standard 10.2; and C. F. Klejbuk and B. Rosenberg, The Juvenile Status Offender and the Law: Abstract, 14 (Pennsylvania Joint Council on the Criminal Justice System, April 1977) The remaining states and the District of Columbia permit the placement of juveniles in adult jails, with the condition that such youths are to remain "separate and apart" from the adults. Of these remaining jurisdictions, fourteen allow the detention of juveniles in adult facilities only when no juvenile facility is available; two states require that the juvenile be charged with a felony; and seven states have a minimum age limit below which a child cannot be held in an adult facility. See Klejbuk and Rosenberg, supra at 14.

The "separate and apart" provisions preferred to above have been generally unsuccessful in achieving their obvious objective. Where "joint" adult and juvenile facilities exist,

4.261 Size and Population

The population of a detention facility should not exceed twenty. Detention facilities should make provision for and be co-educational in nature.

Sources:

Institute of Judicial Administration/American Bar Association Joint Commission on Juvenile Justice Standards, Proposed Standards Relating to Architecture for Group Homes and Secure Detention and Corrections Facilities, Standard 7.3 (draft, 1976). See generally National Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, Report of the Task Force on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Standard 24.1 (1976).

Commentary

This standard recommends that no single detention facility should house more than twenty juveniles. Other standardssetting groups have suggested maximum population sizes ranging from twelve youths to thirty youths within a single detention facility. See, e.g., Institute of Judicial Administration/American Bar Association Joint Commission on Juvenile Justice Standards, Standards Relating to Corrections Administration, Standard 7.2 and Commentary (draft, 1976) [hereinfater cited as IJA/ABA, Corrections Administration]; The National Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice and Goals, Corrections, Standard 8.3, (1976); J. J. Downy, State Responsibility for Juvenile Detention Care (1970).

After reviewing all positions, the National Advisory Committee concluded that a detention facility should be comparable in size to a living unit within a training school. See Standard 4.2112 and Commentary. By limiting the population to a maximum of twenty, and by utilizing the staff-to-juvenile ratio required for training schools, See Standards 4.262 and 4.2122, this standard provides the highest degree of service to youths consistent with maintaining security. See also Standards 4.2112, 4.2191, and 4.221.

Limiting the maximum number of youths in each detention facility to twenty will provide an atmosphere that will minimize the uncertainty, disorientation, and alientation of the juvenile detained. See Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, Planning and Designing For Juvenile Justice, 66-104 (1972). Although twenty residents is the stated maximum, the National Advisory Committee strongly recommends that if smaller-scale detention facilities with fewer residents can

be made available, those smaller-scale facilities should be utilized. In terms of numbers of residents in a single facility, "the smaller the better" should be operative philosophy for detention facilities, just as for training schools. See Standards 4.2112, 4.2191, and 4.221. Realistically, no detention facility can create a truly "home-like" atmosphere. Nonetheless, in a smaller-scale facility the environment is likely to be less trying, less alienating, less impersonal, and less "institutional" than in the larger, traditional detention "center."

This standard also recommends that detention facilities be co-educational. These standards are designed as much as possible to maintain the detained youth's contact with his/her community, and the continuity of the youth's primary relationships-of which relationships with both sexes are an important part. See IJA/ABA, Corrections Administration, supra at Commentary to Standard 7.3. No detention facility can maintain a youth's contact with the community and normal development as a person if peers of the opposite sex are excluded from the facility. The Report of the Task Force, supra has aptly stated:

("C)o-educational residential facilities would have the capability to focus on the juvenile delinquent as an individual and provide the most appropriate and least restrictive placement based on community protection considerations and client service. . . (T)his would abandon the concept of separate institutions based on sex and . . . would provide an institutional environment more like the community environment." Report of the Task Force, supra at Commentary to Standard 24.1.

Both the Task Force and the IJA/ABA Joint Commission are in accord with the recommendations of the National Advisory Committee that detention facilities be co-educational. See Report of the Task Force, supra; and IJA/ABA, Corrections Administration, supra at Standard 7.3.

Architects and designers of detention facilities should seek to afford each juvenile the greatest amount of individual freedom consistent with a reasonably "secure" setting. To this end, architectural strategies should include heightening space to increase a sense of spaciousness and to allow variety, encouraging variety and diversity by use of varying furniture arrangements, and increasing the control and influence which the youth residents can exercise in his/her physical environment. See Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, Planning and Designing For Juvenile Justice, 66-104 (1972). The facility's design should support and facilitate reasonable behavior by residents, should provide meaningful choices in terms of individual behavior and activities, and offer

The recommended physical setting with a specific twentyresident limit, should enable staff and juveniles to make the most of whatever time the juvenile must spend in such facilities. Opportunities for modifying and, perhaps, dismissing-petitions alleging delinquency should be available for juveniles who function effectively in the small, humanscaled supportive detention facilities which these standards seek to provide. See LEAA, Planning and Designing For Juvenile Justice, supra.

Related Standard

1.125 Evaluation of Local and State Efforts

Released-Delinquency