This report presents findings from the 2000 Juvenile Residential Facility Census (JRFC) examining facilities where juvenile offenders are held with specific information gathered on facility characteristics, facility crowding, and facility related deaths.
In 2000, the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention developed and administered the first Juvenile Residential Facility Census (JRFC) to gather and report information about the facilities in which juveniles offenders are held. Data is routinely collected on facility characteristics, such as type, size, structure, security arrangements, and ownership, as well as bedspace, the range of services provided to youth in residential facilities, and deaths of juveniles in custody. This report presents findings from the inaugural 2000 JRFC with specific focus on two issues: facility crowding and facility-related deaths. Many facilities report not having enough standard beds for all their residents. About 40 percent of the juvenile facilities reported that the number of residents exceeded their available beds and were also more likely than other facilities to report that they had transported youth to an emergency room in the last month due to injuries resulting in a conflict with another resident. The data collected also showed that the number of youth who died while in custody was decreasing and were relatively rare. While juvenile facilities in 1994 reported 45 in-custody deaths, there were 30 in-custody deaths reported in 2000. This death rate is about half the rate for their counterparts in the general U.S. population. In addition, more than half of the deaths (17 of 30) reported occurred outside the facility with private facilities accounting for most of the deaths which occurred outside the facility (12). Tables