Delinquency Services Summary
Centralized State: A single state executive agency administers a full range of services to delinquents. The Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services administers detention, diversion, probation supervision through eight district probation offices, commitment programs, and aftercare. The prosecutor's office conducts intake, and Family Court workers perform predisposition investigations.

Court(s) with Delinquency Jurisdiction
The Family Court, a unified statewide Court with limited jurisdiction, exercises jurisdiction over delinquency proceedings in three court branches. For more information, visit the Delaware Family Court web page.

Highlights

Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Updates
In October 2002, the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services (DYRS), Family Court, Justice of the Peace Court, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Public Defender’s Office partnered with the Annie E. Casey Foundation in the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI).

Risk Assessment Instrument
In January 2006, the Risk Assessment Instrument (RAI) was fully implemented in the Family Court and Justice of the Peace Court. The RAI is an objective screening tool used to bring uniformity to detention decisions and reduce inappropriate admissions to secure detention. The goal is to effectively reduce incidences of failure to appear and re-arrest prior to disposition and to generate data from the RAI to drive decision-making regarding system reform.

Mental Health Evaluations
Delaware is striving to develop new strategies for meeting the mental health needs of all youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Through collaboration with the Division of Child Mental Health Services, substance abuse screening and assessment services for detained youth and transition services to mental health treatment in the community has greatly improved. As of 2006, all state operated juvenile facilities have full time psychologists on staff. The psychologists are instrumental in assisting with difficul youth, providing training for staff on mental health issues, interventions and strategies, evaluating youth for suicidal ideation and gestures and conducting individual and group counseling.

Juvenile Justice Program Highlights
The Delaware Criminal Justice Council's Juvenile Justice Team will highlight one program each quarter on its Juvenile Justice web page. This will promote programs operating throughout the state that are funded via one of the Criminal Justice Council's Juvenile Justice funding areas.

Detention
The Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services (DYRS) operates Delaware's secure detention facilities. DYRS operates two detention centers: the William Marion Stevenson House Detention Center and the New Castle County Detention Center (NCCDC).

Statute outlines the criteria for holding youth in detention pending adjudication, including if there is a risk that the youth will not attend the adjudicatory hearing; the youth is a fugitive from another jurisdiction on a delinquency petition; the youth is charged with an offense that, if committed by an adult, would constitute a felony; the youth willfully failed to appear at a hearing on a delinquency petition and is at risk of running away; or the youth has repeatedly failed to comply with court-ordered placement pursuant to a delinquency petition in an out-of-home residential setting.

Youth may be held in detention pending adjudication. Secure detention cannot be ordered as a disposition; however, it can be used as a placement pending commitment to a non-secure detention facility (see explanation below) and can be used as a sanction only under specific circumstances (see Aftercare/Re-entry).

Detention hearings must be held the next day court is in session. If the court determines that the juvenile must remain in detention pending adjudication, the court must review the status of the case and the reasons for detention every 30 days. Additional information about detention and detention procedures can be found in Delaware’s Rules of Criminal Procedure.

Delaware is participating in the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative. For more information on this reform effort, please see the highlight. As part of this initiative, a Legal Memorandum (03-269: Non Secure and Secure Juvenile Procedures for Delinquents) went into effect to allow a broader use of non-secure detention and alternatives. If a judge wishes to order a juvenile defendant to a non-secure detention facility and there are no beds available, the commitment would be to the closest secure detention facility (either Stevenson House or NCCDC) and the last section on the worksheet would be completed so that the commitment would state: “The defendant should be transferred to a non-secure facility as soon as space becomes available or to another detention alternative as DYRS deems appropriate.” This language gives DYRS the ability to move a youth as soon as a bed or alternative placement becomes available.

Delinquency Intake Screening
Peace Officers (law enforcement) are often the first point of contact for juveniles entering the juvenile justice system in Delaware. Once the Attorney General’s Office (or prosecutor) is provided with the complaint against the juvenile and decides to proceed with prosecution, a petition is filed with the court.

Diversion
The Attorney General’s Office (or prosecutor) is responsible for making juvenile diversion decisions. Diversion usually consists of arbitration or a specialized program alternative, such as teen court or drug court. Although drug court is technically not a diversion program, it operates similar to one. Youth must be referred to the program by the Attorney General, meet entry criteria, and plead to a specific drug related charge. After the youth is adjudicated, the youth is generally placed on a Level I administrative probation. Following screening and assessment by the Division of Children’s Mental Health, the youth begins the recommended treatment, which ranges from outpatient to residential. Treatment is lowered as the youth progresses. Group status review hearings are held every three weeks. The youth’s progress in treatment, as well as school attendance, curfew compliance, and behavior are monitored. Sanctions may be handed out for violations, and serious violations may result in dismissal from the program. If the youth is not charged with a new offense for a period of six months following graduation, the Court will automatically vacate the delinquency adjudication and dismiss the charges. The Motor Vehicle Division is subsequently advised that any loss of driving privileges arising out of the adjudication, which is now vacated, are to be restored.

Predisposition Investigation
Limited predisposition reports are compiled on each youth adjudicated delinquent in Delaware. However, “predisposition investigations” are not a routine part of Delaware’s juvenile court procedure. Pre-sentence reports are not submitted to the Court or anyone else involved in the case unless the juvenile has entered a guilty plea or has been found guilty. The pre-sentence report contains information that will be helpful to the court when making disposition decisions, such as probation or commitment. The pre-sentence report is not a public record and is only available for review by the sentencing judge, the juvenile and his attorney, the juvenile’s custodian, the Department of Children, Youth and Families (if the juvenile is committed to its custody), and the probation department (if the juvenile is placed on probation). In select cases (such as domestic violence cases), a pre-sentence officer may conduct a more extensive pretrial investigation.

Victim Rights and Services
Delaware’s Victims' Bill of Rights extends rights to victims of adult and juvenile offenders who have committed certain types of offenses. If offense criteria are met, victims have the right to be notified by the Attorney General’s Office about the scheduling of court proceedings; be present at court proceedings; present impact statements; and have minimal or no contact with the defendant, including a separate court waiting area if possible. In addition, the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families (DSCYF) must notify victims about committed juveniles' projected release date, actual release, and any escapes. The Bill of Rights also requires that DSCYF provide the victim with information concerning the terms of probation, parole, or other condition of release and the juvenile’s level of compliance with the sentence, probation, parole or other conditions.

The Department of Justice's Attorney General Victim/Witness Unit is a statewide unit that assists victims of crimes and their families.

Probation Supervision
The Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services, Community Services Unit, provides probation supervision through eight judicial districts. Persons who supervise youth on probation are called "Family Service Specialists;" however, the title "Probation Officer" is commonly used.

Programs include intensive case management, family treatment, day treatment, residential programs, mental health counseling and sex offender treatment.

A risk/needs assessment instrument is used to evaluate each new probationer. In addition, a case plan, which includes contact standards as well as standard conditions of supervision, is developed upon entry. The Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services' (DYRS) Dispositional Guidelines establish five levels of programming, including three levels of community supervision. DYRS makes a service level recommendation to the court, which makes the final determination.

• Level I, minimum intensity or administrative probation, is appropriate for juvenile offenders who are low risk and do not require the supervision of a juvenile probation officer but are monitored within an adequate family or community structure.

• Level II, moderate intensity probation, is intended for low to moderate risk juvenile offenders who are supervised by DYRS probation officers or DYRS-contracted programs with community providers. At this level, DYRS conducts a risk and needs assessment of youth to determine appropriate referrals to the "Back on Track" program (a rehabilitative program coordinated by a community-contracted provider) or Level II probation.

• Level III, intensive probation, is characterized by close supervision and comprehensive services. Level III includes a Multisystemic Therapy Program in which a DYRS-contracted provider works intensively with the juvenile, family, and community in addressing the root causes of the delinquent act. DYRS probation staff and/or contracted providers provide intensive probation services. The caseload for each worker is five juveniles and their families.

Level IV and V refer to secure placements (see Commitment to State).

While there is no standard caseload size, the process of assigning caseloads is under review in an effort to assign similar cases to probation officers who would become "specialists" in working with case-specific youth.

Juvenile Probation Officer Qualifications, Certification, and Training
Juvenile probation officers must have a bachelor's degree in social work, criminal justice, sociology, or a related field. Delaware does not certify its juvenile probation officers. Training consists of an orientation for new hires and three classes specific to community services. The training curriculum is currently being revised.

Juvenile Corrections Continuum
The Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services (DYRS) operates the Ferris School for Boys, a maximum secure care facility for males. The average length of stay is six months, followed by a six-week transition program at Mowlds Cottage. DYRS contracts with a number of private residential facilities for female juvenile offenders.

DYRS also relies on a number of out-of-state residential placement facilities to provide services to adjudicated youth. Efforts are being made to reduce the number of out-of-state placements and use the contract savings to hire additional probation officers. The intent is for the probation officers to provide increased supervision contacts while keeping youth closer to home.

Commitment to State
Family Court judges may commit juveniles to the custody of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families. In its commitment order, the court specifies the level of placement after considering the service plan proposed by the Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services as well as the "presumptive level of placement" indicated by the State's Dispositional Guidelines (see Probation Supervision for more information). (Note: Technically, under the Dispositional Guidelines, all adjudicated youth receive the disposition of a secure, locked commitment. However, the court orders the commitment suspended for offenders requiring a lower level of security and orders placement at an appropriate program level.)

Level IV and V refer to secure placements. Level IV, Staff Secure Programs, is a court-ordered commitment to an out-of home placement under 24-hour staff supervision. Before the court orders an offender whose previous charge level is I-III to a Level IV placement, DYRS must give a recommendation to the court on the appropriateness of Multisystemic Therapy.

Level V, Locked Secure Programs, requires court-ordered commitment to an out-of-home placement. These are the most restrictive rehabilitative programs available. The decision to commit a juvenile to a Level V program is based on 1) an assessment of the current offense; 2) past delinquency history; 3) probability of the juvenile representing a risk to society; and 4) the juvenile’s specific characteristics and treatment needs.

State law requires commitment of a defined category of repeat felony offender (designated "a child in need of mandated institutional treatment") for a minimum of six months. Otherwise, commitments are indeterminate.

Blended Sentencing
Delaware does not have blended sentencing provisions.

Direct Placement
Youth must be committed to the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families for placement in a private residential facility.

Release
The Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services (DYRS) determines when to release committed offenders and may do so whenever it appears that release is in the best interests of the youth and that public security would not be threatened. However, DYRS must first give notice of release to the Family Court.

Aftercare/Re-entry
The Community Services Unit of the Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services provides aftercare services. Probation officers monitor youth and their progress while in a placement facility and prepare youth to make the transition to their community. Once released from residential placement and after the transition period, youth are required to maintain timely contacts with their probation officers. DYRS, in some instances, needs to sanction the youth on aftercare status for non-compliance. This is accomplished via Administrative Holds, which last 24, 48, or 72 hours, or via Aftercare Revocations (Step I/Step II) lasting 1 to 2 weeks and 2 to 4 weeks, respectively. Previously, these youth have been held at the detention centers. Youth sanctioned for noncompliance are now being held at Mowlds Cottage, the Level IV step down program from Ferris School.

Grace/Snowden Cottage residential treatment programs are designed to address the needs of adjudicated adolescents that are having difficulty successfully completing community-based services. Grace and Snowden Cottages provide education, individual and family counseling, psychological/psychiatric services, aftercare and transition services, outside programming, and gender specific programming. Referrals and recommendations related to drug/alcohol treatment or specific mental health treatment services are made as appropriate. Probation officers partner with program staff and the families of the youth to ensure that aftercare plans and community-based linkages are appropriate.

The Serious Juvenile Offender (SJO) Program targets serious juvenile offenders who need supervision after being released from Level IV and V placements (see Dispositional Guidelines for a description of levels). The Community Services Unit implemented this program in 1999. Armed probation officers partner with police officers to monitor compliance with nighttime curfew.

State Laws

Legal Resources
Delaware Code, Title 10 (Court and Judicial Procedure), Chapter 9 (The Family Court of the State of Delaware)

Rules of Criminal Procedure

Delaware State Bar Association

Purpose Clauses
To read Delaware's purpose clauses for delinquency proceedings and juvenile corrections, click here.

Delinquency Jurisdiction (as of the end of the 2005 legislative session)
Lower Age: None specified
Upper Age: 17
Extended Age of Delinquency Jurisdiction: 20

Juvenile Transfer Laws
For information on Delaware's juvenile transfer laws, click here.

Juvenile Justice Leadership

Child Placement Review Board
The Child Placement Review Board is a citizen-based committee that reviews cases of youth who are in foster care and adjudicated youth. The State Legislature established this Board in 1978.

Delaware Criminal Justice Council
This Council, as Delaware's State Advisory Group (SAG), allocates and disburses federal funding and insures compliance with the core requirements of the JJDP Act of 1974.

Resources/Contacts
Child Placement Review Board
Delaware Criminal Justice Council
Delaware Family Court
Delaware State Bar Association
Department of Justice's Victim/Witness Unit
Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families' Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services

Kate Carlson
Juvenile Justice Specialist
Delaware Criminal Justice Council
Carvel State Building, 10th Floor
820 N. French Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
Phone: (302) 577-5030
Fax: (302) 577-3440

The National Center for Juvenile Justice strives to make each State Profile as accurate as possible. Please bring any errors, updates, or additions to the attention of the State Profiles project manager. Persons listed as state contacts are not responsible for information contained in these profiles.

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

Citation: National Center for Juvenile Justice. 2006. "Delaware." State Juvenile Justice Profiles. Pittsburgh, PA: NCJJ. Online. Available: http://www.ncjj.org/stateprofiles/.