Traffic Tech #259: Juvenile Holdover Program Implementation Guide Published

A juvenile holdover program (JHP) is a short-term, temporary holding program for youth. It is an old concept. The creativity of law enforcement officers, social workers, and probation officers has always been called upon to decide what to do with a juvenile in need of a safe, and perhaps secure, place to wait until a parent can be located or while the system mobilizes to respond to the needs of a child or youth. The American Probation and Parole Association has prepared an implementation guide compiled from the ideas and experiences of many who work in juvenile holdover programs across the nation. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) sponsored the work.

Juvenile crime is a significant portion of the activity of the justice system in all communities and often the problems and needs of youths must be handled differently from those of adults. For example, most juveniles cannot be held in the same detention or residential facilities as adults, even if the same level of intervention is required. While serious juvenile crime is decreasing, the kinds of juvenile behaviors that are most likely to lead to placement in a juvenile holdover program are increasing. Juvenile arrests for curfew and loitering violations increased 178 percent between 1989 and 1998. In 1998, 27 percent of curfew arrests involved youth under the age of 15, and 30 percent involved females. Arrests of youths driving under the influence increased by 13 percent and liquor law violations increased by 10 percent from 1994 to 1998.

Some of the special problems of dealing with juveniles that have lead to communities to develop JHPs include:

• distance to the nearest detention facility
• compliance with the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act
• limited detention beds
• need for alternatives to secure juvenile detention
• need to reduce law enforcement downtime
• need for alternatives in a detention continuum
  
  

Key Elements of a Juvenile Holdover Program

These programs vary from community to community. Some principles are essential to a sound design in any setting or context.

• Able to provide comfortable facilities with minimum services for an overnight stay. These include meals, a bed, shower and restroom facilities, with attention paid to gender-specific needs and appropriate privacy. JHPs are located in jails (where there is sight and sound separation), separate areas in juvenile detention facilities, administrative areas of the local police station or sheriff's office, church basements, rooms or lobby areas of social service agencies and nonprofit organizations, and even hotel rooms. It may be a separate entity, or part of another agency's program.
• Integration into a network of services for youth. A JHP is not a stand-alone program, but must be connected to the other juvenile justice and child welfare services systems in a community.
• Short-term alternative. A JHP should be a short-term placement. Many house youth for 24 hours or less; some extend the time during weekends and holidays.
• Easily accessible. JHP need to provide services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and on relatively short notice. It should be easy to reach for staffing and for those bringing youth into custody.
• Trained staff. Anyone providing supervision to youth in a holdover program must be well trained through a comprehensive curriculum.
• Able to respond to a youth's immediate needs. A JHP first must make a juvenile feel safe and then meet his or her basic needs. Staff must recognize when behavior is driven by fear and a sense of loss of control and when it is a defiant display of disrespect or aggression.
• Ability to respond to and de-escalate the immediate situation if necessary (crisis intervention). Staff and volunteers need the skills to intervene in behavioral and emotional problems that present an immediate threat to the youth or in family conflicts.
• Screening and assessment capacity. Staff and volunteers need to assess general needs and risks, and be prepared to respond to those that require immediate attention such as a suicide risk, medical concerns, and child abuse or neglect.
• Referral expertise. This means knowing the available community resources and procedures to obtain help for youth and their families.
• Ability to coordinate post-release services to the youth and family. If youth are to be involved with formal activities such as court hearings, staff and volunteers should be able to provide appropriate information to youth and their families about the next step, and with the county attorney, social services, juvenile court, and juvenile probation.
• Program evaluation design. Each program should have procedures in place to conduct both a process and an outcome evaluation. This provides ongoing feedback about operation issues. The outcome evaluation assesses how well the program is meeting its goals, and documents its successes.

HOW TO ORDER

For a copy of An Implementation Guide for Juvenile Holdover Programs, (285 pages plus appendices) write to Media and Marketing, NHTSA, NTS-21, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20590; or send a fax to (202) 493-2062. James Wright was the contract manager for this study.

U.S. Department
of Transportation
National Highway
Traffic Safety
Administration
400 Seventh Street, S.W. NTS-31
Washington, DC 20590

Traffic Tech is a publication to disseminate information about traffic safety programs, including evaluations, innovative programs, and new publications. Feel free to copy it as you wish.

If you would like to receive a copy contact:

Linda Cosgrove, Ph.D., Editor, Evaluation Staff
Traffic Safety Programs
(202) 366-2759, fax (202) 366-7096
E-MAIL: lcosgrove@nhtsa.dot.gov