Youth detention center

In the US criminal justice system, a youth detention center (YDC) may also be referred to as a juvenile detention center (JDC), juvenile detention, juvenile jail, juvenile hall, observation home and a remand home. Colloquially it is often referred to as "juvie". A YDC or JDC is a prison for youth offenders under the age of 18, also legally referred to as minors or under the age of majority. Juvenile offenders are tried in juvenile court, which is a separate system for youth offenders. After arrest as well as depending upon many factors, such as the frequency and nature of their crimes, juveniles either await trial or placement in a long-term care program, with the goal of rehabilitation.

Some juveniles are released directly back into the community and must undergo community-based rehabilitative programs. Those offenders who pose a greater threat to society and to themselves are sentenced to a full-time, supervised juvenile detention center. If a juvenile is sent by the courts to a juvenile detention center, there are two types of facilities: secure detention and secure confinement.

Secure detention means that juveniles are held for usually short periods of time in facilities in order to await current trial hearings and further placement decisions. By holding juveniles in secure detention, it ensures their appearance in court and also keeps the community safe. This type of facility is usually called "juvenile hall" ("juvie"), which is a holding center for juvenile delinquents. On the other hand, secure confinement implies that the juvenile has been committed by the court into the custody of a secure juvenile correctional facility for the duration of a specific program, which can span from a few months to many years.

Juvenile detention is not intended to be punitive. The goal of secure custody is to provide the offenders with care consistent with the doctrine of parens patriae, or "the state as parent". The state or local jurisdiction is usually responsible for providing education, recreation, health care, assessment, counseling and other intervention services with the intent of maintaining a youth's well-being during their stay in custody.

Generally speaking, secure detention is reserved for juveniles considered to be a threat to public safety or the court process, though in many cases, youths are held for violating a court order. Status offenders, i.e., juveniles charged with running away from home, alcohol possession, and other offenses that are not crimes if committed by adults, may only be held for 24 hours or less, while initial case investigation is completed, and other alternatives are arranged.^{[citation needed]}

There does not currently exist a uniform, cohesive definition for juvenile residential treatment programs. Within the categories of secure detention and secure confinement for juveniles, the overarching name of these facilities is "residential programs". Five overarching types of residential programs where a juvenile may be placed while in court custody are: The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention found the five types of residential programs for juveniles to be a broad range, which included detention, corrections, camp, community based, and residential treatment. The wide variety in juvenile placement options is due to the lack of a uniform definition of these residential treatment programs. Without a federal, uniform definition, this creates a lack of uniformity across all 50 states and the diverse and often confusing names for centers for "secure detention" and "secure confinement" for juvenile offenders.

Many services are supposed to be provided to the youth at both detention centers and confinement facilities. Services vary from facility to facility, but in general the programs and services provided to the youth are geared toward the juvenile's needs. At the core, juvenile facilities function as rehabilitative institutions for youth. Education is seen by many as the primary rehabilitative service that must be provided to detained youth. Highly effective schools within juvenile facilities provide high school curriculum, opportunities for General Equivalency Diploma (GED) preparation, special education services, certified teachers, small student to teacher ratio, connection with families, and vocational training opportunities. Despite state and federal requirements, there are many problems with the educational systems in juvenile detention centers. Many institutions do not provide basic education services, and in others, children only receive a fraction of the state-mandated instructional time, and classes are not based on a coherent curriculum. (Katherine Twomey, The right to Education in Juvenile Detention Under State Constitutions, p. 766). Some facilities do not have designated classrooms, libraries, or even books, and the teachers are often poorly trained, and are not trained in how to deal with special needs of children in detention. (Id. at 767.) Despite these shortcomings, there have been very few consequences to states for violating the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, (Id. at 779.); therefore, states do not have much incentive to improve standards to achieve compliance.

There is a long-standing connection found in research between youth who commit crimes and mental health concerns. A remarkably high population of juveniles present serious mental health illness within juvenile facilities. Since juvenile detention facilities operate on the foundation of rehabilitating the youth, different mental health programs are provided by facilities to help the youth rehabilitate. It is the expectation that juvenile detention centers and juvenile institutions provide mental health services to their residents. The incarcerated youth population requires careful and structured intervention, which must be provided by the facilities.