Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Juvenile Detention Conditions topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Attorney General Janet says national study shows need to improve juvenile detention conditions
Summary
At an OJJDP national teleconference, Attorney General Janet and other officials said a new study on juvenile detention conditions requires reforms, emphasizing supportive confinement, treatment, and the development of performance-based standards for health services in facilities.
Attorney General Janet opened the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's national satellite teleconference to present findings from a national study on conditions in juvenile detention and correctional facilities and called for reforms to better serve youth in custody.
"This study puts an exclamation point on the obvious conclusion: that America must take better care of its children once they get into trouble," Attorney General Janet said, urging confinement practices that "support the child rather than further diminish their condition." The teleconference was announced as the OJJDP's first national satellite event on the study.
Barbara Allen-Hagen, speaking after Janet, said the study's recommendations present a "revolutionary" prospect for juvenile corrections and that the Office now faces the task of implementing the findings in a way that could change the field's practices.
John J. Wilson said the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has begun steps to address the study and will "soon begin the development of performance-based standards for health services in juvenile justice facilities to improve conditions of confinement." The comment frames one concrete next step the agency plans to take in response to the study.
Associate Attorney General Raymond Fisher summarized three principles he said are crucial to the policy response: the great majority of juveniles never offend; the majority of juvenile offenders do not go on to offend again; and reducing juvenile crime requires "a strong and smart juvenile justice system" that holds youth accountable while providing treatment needed to help them become productive adults.
The teleconference emphasized both the deficiencies documented by the study and the need for policy and practice changes—ranging from standards development to programmatic reforms—to ensure confinement, where used, supports rehabilitation rather than harm. The teleconference did not provide a timetable for implementing standards or detailed resource estimates; those details were not specified in the transcript.
