Bulletin Reports 

Juveniles in Residential Placement

Juveniles in Residential Placement, 1997-2008, an Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) fact sheet, provides data derived from the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP) and the Juvenile Residential Facility Census (JRFC). As the fact sheet confirms, the number of juvenile offenders in residential placement in publicly and privately operated juvenile facilities has declined steadily since 2000. In 2008, fewer than 81,000 juvenile offenders were housed. This represents the lowest number of juvenile offenders counted in a national census of juvenile facilities since 1993 when the tally was slightly less than 79,000.

Facilities included in these data collections feature a wide range of types: secure and nonsecure; public (state or local), private, and tribal; and long-term and short-term holding. Juvenile facilities are known by many different names across the country: detention centers, juvenile halls, shelters, reception and diagnostic centers, group homes, wilderness camps, ranches, farms, youth development centers, residential treatment centers, training or reform schools, and juvenile correctional institutions. Some facilities resemble adult prisons or jails, some campuses, and others houses.

In 2008, 263 juvenile offenders were in placement for every 100,000 juveniles in the general population. CJRP reports state placement rates based on the state where the offense was committed. Youth held out of state are counted in the state that placed them. The residential placement rate is the number of juvenile offenders assigned a bed in a public or private facility on the census date per 100,000 youth ages 10 through the state’s upper age of original juvenile court jurisdiction in the general population. From 1997 to 2007, 35 states experienced declines in their residential placement rates, 10 had increases, and five states and the District of Columbia saw virtually no change.

OJJDP’s Statistical Briefing Book (http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/ojstatbb) provides access to CJRP data through two data analysis tools, the CJRP Databook and Easy Access to the CJRP. The Briefing Book also includes information on JRFC through bulletins that summarize each wave of data collection.

The Juveniles in Residential Placement, 1997-2008 fact sheet (NCJ 229379) contains additional details and charts. It is available at the National Criminal Justice Reference Service’s Web site, http://www.ncjrs.gov.