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Legal Liability Issues Concerning Pre-Adjudicatory Drug Testing of Detained Juveniles

NCJ Number
183500
Author(s)
Sarah M. Shalf; Richard E. Redding
Date Published
October 1999
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This paper examines legal liability issues concerning pre-adjudicatory drug testing of detained juveniles.
Abstract
When a juvenile is placed in a secure facility in Virginia, facility staff must “gather such information from the juvenile...as is reasonably available and deemed necessary by the facility staff.” While there is no explicit statutory authority for a juvenile detention center to perform drug screening urinalysis on entering juveniles, substance abuse information is arguably both “reasonably available” through relatively non-invasive urinalysis and “necessary” to the proper care and treatment of resident juveniles. In order to compel a juvenile to provide a urine sample for testing, certain common-law, statutory, and constitutional barriers must be overcome. The paper discusses the requirements for obtaining a valid consent to drug screening, the constitutionality of mandatory drug testing without consent, the permissible uses of positive drug test results and the possible liabilities of a juvenile detention center and other officials for unlawful drug testing or use of test results. It also discusses implementation of the Virginia statute allowing post-adjudicatory drug testing and provides recommendations for implementing legally sound drug testing procedures. Notes, appendixes