Median days in placement since admission, 1997-2010

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Working for Youth Justice and Safety

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Custody Data (1997-Present)

Q:	How long do juveniles stay in juvenile residential placement facilities?
A:	Half of committed residents had been in placement longer than 114 days when the census was taken. Half of detained juveniles had been in custody fewer than 19 days.

Placement status	1997	1999	2001	2003	2006	2007	2010

All facilities	69	76	77	69	65	64	70
Committed	112	125	128	113	112	110	114
Detained	17	17	15	15	16	15	19

Private facilities	110	112	110	109	106	104	113
Committed	121	131	124	121	120	119	127
Detained	26	21	20	20	22	17	19

Public facilities	55	62	63	50	47	48	50
Committed	106	120	132	105	107	104	106
Detained	16	16	15	15	15	15	19

Notes: The "median days in placement" statistic indicates that half the residents stayed fewer days and half stayed more days.

To protect the confidentiality of juvenile residents all published data from the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP) are rounded to the nearest multiple of three. Each cell is rounded independently, without consideration as to row or column totals. As a result, in many tables, the internal cells do not add to the marginal totals. Rates and percentages presented from CJRP are also based on rounded totals. More information on this rounding rule is available on the EZACJRP Web site.

[ Excel file ]

Information on length of stay is key to understanding the justice system’s handling of juveniles in residential placement. Developing information on the length of time juveniles spend in residential placement, however, is a difficult task. Ideally, length of stay would be calculated for each individual juvenile by combining their days of stay in residential placement from their first admission to their last release relating to a particular case. These individual lengths of placement would then be averaged for different release cohorts of juveniles. The Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement captures information on the number of days since admission to a particular facility for each juvenile in residential placement. These data represent the number of days the juvenile had been in the facility up to the reference date of the census. Because the data are not based on a release cohort, however, complete lengths of stay cannot be determined. The data reflect only a juvenile’s placement at one facility and not multiple placements in multiple facilities. The data provide an overall profile of the time juveniles had been in the facility at the time of the census—a 1-day snapshot of time spent in the facility.
In 2010, at the time of the census, residents had been in the facility an average of 133 days since their admission. A few residents for whom very long stays were reported, however, skew this average (mean). In fact, half of all residents had been in placement fewer than 70 days (median).
Residents’ time in the facility varied by their placement status. Half of committed residents had been in placement longer than 114 days. Time in placement for detained juveniles was substantially shorter than for committed juveniles. Half of all detained juveniles had been in custody fewer than 19 days.
Time in placement was also related to whether juveniles were held in a public or private facility. In public facilities, half of committed juveniles had been in placement longer than 106 days. In private facilities, half of committed juveniles had been in the facility longer than 127 days. Among the detained population: in 2010, juveniles detained in private facilities had been in the facility for the same amount of time as those detained in public facilities. Half of those detained in public facilities had been in custody fewer than 19 days. Equally, half of youth detained in private facilities had been in placement fewer than 19 days.

Internet citation: OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book. Online. Available: http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/corrections/qa08405.asp?qaDate=2010. Released on December 09, 2011.

Data Source: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2007, and 2010 [machine-readable data files]. Washington, D.C.: OJJDP.