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Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform No.6: Improving Conditions of Confinement in Secure Juvenile Detention Centers

NCJ Number
187581
Author(s)
Sue Burrell
Date Published
1999
Length
54 pages
Annotation
This report presents what was learned from the Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) regarding improving and maintaining safe, humane detention facilities for juveniles.
Abstract
After discussing the impact of inadequate detention conditions and their relationship to detention reform, this report offers guiding principles, based on JDAI experiences, for jurisdictions working to improve institutional conditions. Another chapter discusses how to develop and conduct an assessment, followed by a chapter that considers how to improve inadequate conditions or practices, based on evidence regarding what has worked at JDAI sites. Another chapter provides advice on establishing an assessment process, followed by a summary on how the JDAI sites will provide a system for ongoing assessment. The overall lesson of JDAI for other jurisdictions is that maintaining safe, humane conditions in juvenile detention facilities requires unending vigilance through objective assessment based on applicable legal requirements and accepted professional standards. It requires the commitment of administrators, staff, and the larger juvenile justice community to work for ongoing systemic improvement of detention conditions and practices. A list of 16 resources that pertain to systemic improvement of conditions, legal issues and court cases, professional standards, and studies/statistics on conditions