As part of the annual report, OJJDP includes information on the number of juveniles taken into custody. This information reveals much about how the Nation is responding to the issues of juvenile offending. In many respects, juvenile detention and corrections facilities are the heart of the juvenile justice system. It is in these residential facilities that juvenile justice agencies attempt to change patterns of behavior in juveniles so that they can become responsible members of society. At the same time, these facilities must maintain a secure environment to protect both the residents and the community at large.

Juvenile detention and corrections facilities face a daunting problem. The twin goals of security and rehabilitation often conflict in practice; the most apparent clash is in the crowding problems many residential facilities face today. Although the juvenile justice system has determined that residents in the facilities pose a threat to people or property if left in the community, crowded conditions significantly strain the facilities, leaving them unable to focus on such activities as education, substance abuse treatment, or therapeutic treatment.

OJJDP has been collecting information for more than 20 years on the number of juveniles held in detention and other facilities. Until 1997, these data were gathered through the biennial Census of Public and Private Juvenile Detention, Correctional, and Shelter Facilities, better known as the Children in Custody (CIC) Census. After consulting a variety of experts and determining that CIC was not meeting the needs of the field, OJJDP, with the help of the U.S. Bureau of the Census and a technical advisory board, developed a new survey. This chapter summarizes information from the new Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP), which was conducted in October 1997. It also includes information about other corrections-related OJJDP activities.

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OJJDP Annual Report 1998	October 1999