Improved Federal Efforts Needed To Change Juvenile Detention Practices

Gao ID: GGD-83-23 March 22, 1983

GAO examined the efforts that states, localities, and federal agencies are making to change their juvenile detention policies and practices and identified opportunities for further improvement.

GAO found that juvenile detention practices have improved since passage of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, but problems still exist. Although the number of juveniles admitted to detention centers appears to have decreased by about 14.6 percent from 1975 to 1979, GAO found questionable detention practices in all five of the states it visited. About 39 percent of the juveniles detained in detention centers and jails in the states reviewed were not charged with serious offenses. Suggested standards for physical conditions and services were not met by many of the detention facilities, and some jails used isolation-type cells to separate juveniles from adult prisoners. Juvenile detention policies and practices of five federal agencies do not always adhere to the objectives of the act. The Bureau of Indian Affairs' standards require juveniles to be held in cells apart from adults, but allow them to be within the sight and sound of adult prisoners. Policies of the Marshals Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service could result in juveniles' being transported in vehicles with adults. The National Park Service (NPS) picks up runaways and turns them over to local authorities, possibly resulting in their detention. Further, the agencies' systems of inspecting law enforcement programs and detention facilities for adherence to their policies and national juvenile justice standards were not adequate.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Arnold P. Jones Team: General Accounting Office: General Government Division Phone: (202) 512-7797


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