U.S. Department of Justice 

Office of Justice Programs 

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 

Jeff Slowikowski, Acting Administrator February 2010

Juveniles in Residential Placement,
 

1997–2008
 by Melissa Sickmund 

OJJDP’s National Juvenile Justice Data 

Collection Program monitors trends in the 

residential placement of juvenile offenders 

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 is the fewest juvenile offenders counted in 

a national census of juvenile facilities since 1993, when the tally 

was slightly less than 79,000. 

Prior to 1997, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 

Prevention (OJJDP) sponsored the Children in Custody (CIC) 

Census of Juvenile Detention, Correctional, and Shelter Facilities. In 1997, OJJDP replaced CIC with the Census of Juveniles 

in Residential Placement (CJRP), a 1-day count of juvenile 

offenders (accused and adjudicated delinquent and status offenders) held in juvenile facilities nationwide. CJRP provides detailed 

information on all juveniles in residential facilities in the United 

States, including gender, birth date, race and/or ethnicity, most 

serious offense, state where the offense occurred, whether the 

Between the 2000 peak and 2008, the number of juvenile 

offenders in residential placement declined 26% 

Number of juvenile offenders in residential placement 

0 

20,000 

40,000 

60,000 

80,000 

100,000 

120,000 

Publicly and privately operated facilities 

1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 

juvenile is being held pre- or postadjudication, and admission 

date. In 2000, OJJDP launched the Juvenile Residential Facility 

Census (JRFC) as a companion to CJRP. JRFC also collects a 

1-day count of the placement population but focuses on facilities, 

including facility ownership, operation, services, security, crowding, and injuries and deaths in custody. OJJDP generally conducts 

each census during alternating years. 

Facilities included in these two data collections represent a wide 

range of facility 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 resemble 

campuses, and others resemble houses. 

The 2000 JRFC registered the largest population of juvenile 

offenders in residential placement—108,802—since CIC 

was expanded in 1974 to include private facilities. 

In 2008, 263 juvenile offenders were in placement 

for every 100,000 juveniles in the general population 

CJRP reports state placement rates (the number of juvenile 

offenders in placement for every 100,000 juveniles in the general 

population) based on the state where the offense was committed. 

Youth held out of state are counted in the state that placed them. 

State placement rates in 2007 varied substantially, from a high of 

513 in South Dakota to a low of 69 in Vermont. Eleven other 

states had rates less than 200: Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, 

New Mexico, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Delaware and 

Wyoming were the only states other than South Dakota with rates 

greater than 400. 

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Nearly half (46%) of all juvenile offenders in residential 

placement were held by the 6 states with the largest 

placement populations: California, Texas, Florida, 

Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York 

State where offense 

occurred (upper age of 

juvenile court jurisdiction) 

Number of juvenile 

offenders in public 

or private residential 

placement, 2007 

Residential 

placement 

rate, 2007 

U.S. Total 86,814 279 

Alabama (17) 1,650 325 

Alaska (17) 321 383 

Arizona (17) 1,485 208 

Arkansas (17) 810 261 

California (17) 14,034 329 

Colorado (17) 1,752 339 

Connecticut (15) 426 148 

Delaware (17) 369 401 

Dist. of Columbia (17) 288 588 

Florida (17) 5,733 315 

Georgia (16) 2,736 286 

Hawaii (17) 129 101 

Idaho (17) 528 298 

Illinois (16) 2,565 204 

Indiana (17) 2,727 382 

Iowa (17) 954 294 

Kansas (17) 1,146 370 

Kentucky (17) 1,116 247 

Louisiana (16) 1,350 321 

Maine (17) 204 150 

Maryland (17) 930 149 

Massachusetts (16) 969 167 

Michigan (16) 2,748 274 

Minnesota (17) 1,317 230 

Mississippi (17) 450 131 

Missouri (16) 1,227 218 

Montana (17) 210 204 

Nebraska (17) 708 359 

Nevada (17) 996 348 

New Hampshire (16) 156 125 

New Jersey (17) 1,677 176 

New Mexico (17) 378 170 

New York (15) 3,612 239 

North Carolina (15) 1,035 144 

North Dakota (17) 213 322 

Ohio (17) 4,332 341 

Oklahoma (17) 864 219 

Oregon (17) 1,299 330 

Pennsylvania (17) 4,554 344 

Rhode Island (17) 312 282 

South Carolina (16) 1,200 292 

South Dakota (17) 456 513 

Tennessee (17) 1,263 191 

Texas (16) 7,035 287 

Utah (17) 867 262 

Vermont (17) 45 69 

Virginia (17) 2,124 261 

Washington (17) 1,527 218 

West Virginia (17) 570 320 

Wisconsin (16) 1,422 269 

Wyoming (17) 249 443 

Note: State of offense was not reported for 1,748 juveniles. 

Melissa Sickmund, Ph.D., Chief of Systems Research with the National 

Center for Juvenile Justice, prepared this document as a product of the 

National Juvenile Justice Data Analysis Project, which is supported by 

OJJDP grant 2008–JF–FX–K071. 

Between 1997 and 2008, the decline in placement rates 

(26%) was not as sharp as the decline in arrest rates (33%) 

1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 

0 

2,000 

4,000 

6,000 

8,000 

10,000 

0 

100 

200 

300 

400 

Arrests 

Juvenile arrest rate Juvenile residential placement rate 

Placements 

Declines in state residential placement rates were 

widespread across the country 

Decrease of 3% or more 

No change (less than 3% + or –) 

Increase of 3% or more 

DC 

Change in placement 

rate, 1997–2007 

Q From 1997 to 2007, 35 states experienced declines in their residential placement rates, 10 experienced increases, and 5 states and 

the District of Columbia saw virtually no change. 

Definitions 

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. The 

juvenile arrest rate is the number of arrests involving juveniles 

per 100,000 youth ages 10 through 17 in the general population. 

For further information 

OJJDP’s Statistical Briefing Book (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 Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component 

of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice 

Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the Community Capacity 

Development Office; the National Institute of Justice; the Office for Victims 

of Crime; and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, 

Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). 

Fact Sheet NCJ 229379