Youth Detention Centers and Facilities

Youth detention centers and facilities are designed for temporary residential placement of juveniles’ preadjudication and/or postadjudication. In the latter case, the placement is typically while the juvenile awaits transfer to a more long-term setting. In the former case, the placement might be because the offense is such that for safety’s sake the youth must be confined or because there is a lack of another residential alternative for the youth, such as no family members who are available and capable of keeping the youth. Issues of surveillance and security have long been paramount in youth detention centers and facilities given the state’s parens patriae (sovereign parent) responsibility to see to the well-being of the juvenile. This entry reviews how juveniles are housed and monitored in youth ...