The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), recognizes that youth are fundamentally different from adults and must be treated as such. Prior to the passage of the JJDPA, data was not officially tracked, but a 1976 Children's Defense Fund report[1] estimates that up to half a million children were held in adult jails each year.
The JJDPA's core requirements prohibit youth from being placed in adult jails and lockups, and provide guidance to ensure sight and sound separation between youth and incarcerated adults.
The recent reauthorization of the JJDPA reinforced and strengthened the core requirements to keep youth charged as adults out of adult jails and lockups.
To learn more about the JJDPA and core requirements, visit our webpage.
RESOURCES:
- Read OJJDP's Priority 1: Treat Children as Children
- Follow OJJDP on X formerly known as Twitter and Facebook.
[1] view (utk.edu) (p. 6)