Every state vests a state-level, executive branch agency with responsibility for administering its commitment or institutional facilities for juvenile delinquents. However, these state agencies may be of four very different types.

In 16 states (including the District of Columbia), authority to run state delinquency institutions rests in a social or human services agency. In 16 other states, the responsibility is given to a separate juvenile corrections agency--often designated a "youth authority" or "youth services" department. In 10 states, a branch of the adult corrections agency runs the state's delinquency institutions. And in 8 states, the responsibility is given to a "children and youth" agency that combines child protection and juvenile corrections functions. New Jersey is in its own category, with the authority being located in an agency under the Attorney General's direction that oversees the criminal justice system, but not adult corrections.

The past decade has seen considerable change in this area of delinquency services administration. In general, it's fair to say that there has been some movement away from the practice of placing delinquency institutions in the care of the same agencies that run state prison systems: since the late 1980s, the number of states whose adult corrections departments also run their delinquency institutions has fallen from at least 15 to 10. Likewise, there has been some tendency to vest authority over delinquency institutions in a separate juvenile corrections agency: during the same period, the number of states doing so has risen from 12 to 16. The system of locating juvenile corrections functions in an agency with child protection responsibilities also became more common during this period, with the number of states doing so rising from 3 to 7.

© 2000 (original copyright); © 2006 (most recent copyright) National Center for Juvenile Justice

Citation: Griffin, Patrick and King, Melanie. 2006. "National Overviews." State Juvenile Justice Profiles. Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice. Online. Available: http://www.ncjj.org/stateprofiles/.