HD18 - Virginia Department of Corrections and Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services: A Response to House Joint Resolution No. 16

  • Published: 1985
  • Author: Department of Corrections and Department of Criminal Justice Services
  • Enabling Authority: House Joint Resolution 16 (Regular Session, 1984)

Executive Summary:
In 1984, the Virginia General Assembly considered a variety of legislative approaches concerning the removal of juveniles from jail. To comprehensively address the issues involved, House Joint Resolution 16 was passed which required that the Department of Corrections and other appropriate agencies perform certain assessments and prepare a report related to the elimination of "inappropriate use of adult jails for juveniles." This report is in response to that requirement.

In order to study the issues and prepare this report and its recommendations, the Virginia Departments of Corrections and Criminal Justice Services formed a special HJR 16 Study Committee. Representation on this Committee included Department of Corrections staff who work in the various areas that would be affected by any changes, local Juvenile Court staff, local Detention staff and an analyst from the Department of Criminal Justice Services. The Committee met in joint planning sessions with representatives from the Virginia Council of Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judges to prepare the legislative recommendations. It should be remembered that the number of juveniles being held in jails at the present represents a small portion of those involved in the Juvenile Justice System and that any recommendations for their removal must be sensitive to the entire system. In FY 1984 the number of juveniles held in jail (according to analysis of eleven months, July 1, 1983 - May 31, 1984, of DC J-8 data from the Juveniles in Jail form) on a given day and their average length of stay by major category was:

Average Daily Population (no. of youth)

1. Pre-Trial/Juvenile Court: 6.9

2. Serving Sentence/Juvenile Court: 32.2

3. Pre-Trial and Serving Sentence (1 & 2 Combined): 39.1

4. Certified as Adult: 28.9

Average Length of Stay (no. of days)

1. Pre-Trial/Juvenile Court: 8.2

2. Serving Sentence/Juvenile Court: 39.5

3. Pre-Trial and Serving Sentence (1 & 2 Combined): 23.4

4. Certified as Adult: 64.7

Throughout this planning process careful consideration was given to the following issues:

• Any alternative measures proposed should be developed without "widening the net" and increasing the number of juveniles in the service system.

• Any changes proposed should require minimum increases in a local facility's capacity and need for security space.

• Attention should be given to needs and priorities of localities.

• Any changes proposed should require effective and flexible use of available resources and need limited new funding.

• A priority consideration at all times must be the safety of the Commonwealth, the client population and correctional staff.

The issue of the use of jails for juveniles has received steady attention by the Department of Corrections for the past ten years. During this period a great deal of progress has occurred. In particular, local detention facilities have become much more sophisticated programmatically and are capable of handling more serious juveniles who previously were placed in jails. Many older detention facilities have been renovated to more secure standards and new or planned facilities reflect this emphasis. These changes have been made in response to an increasingly older detention population and the development of gang-related activities in the larger facilities. These population changes have resulted in several violent detention escapes and assaults by juveniles in jail and detention facilities.

The increased emphasis on security in detention facilities is preparing the system to handle this changing population; however, it remains essential that preparations to remove juveniles from jail and place them in local detention facilities, according to the criteria outlined in the accompanying recommendations, include the removal of all juveniles identified as "children in need of services," or CHINS. The one exception remains out-of-state children detained pursuant to provisions of the Interstate Compact. The non-violent CHINS will remain the subjects of potential abuse as long as they continue to be placed in detention. The impacts and program funding needs in this report are based on their removal. The removal of CHINS from detention as a means of providing needed security bedspace becomes a cost-effective and practical method for the Commonwealth to meet Federal requirements (the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act stipulates that all recipients of their funding make substantial progress towards removal by December 1985 and, with limited exceptions, full removal by December, 1987) and at the same time continue to meet its obligation to provide for the public's safety.

The Recommendations and Program Funding Needs that follow in this report represent the mutual agreement of the HJR 16 Study Committee and the Virginia Council of Juvenile and Domestic Relation's Court Judges. In cases where agreement could not be reached, the Judges' recommendations are listed separately in the Appendix.