Objective:

The Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts – Division of Probation Services continually seeks to enhance public safety, support a unified court system, and ensure the uniform application of standards founded on evidence-based practices for the protection, supervised care, and behavior change management of youth in confinement.

Purpose:

The purpose of the Juvenile Detention Standards is to provide Illinois juvenile detention centers with a framework grounded in evidence-informed and best practices and to provide consistent and uniform application of this framework. Over the last twenty years, the Illinois juvenile justice system has been positively impacted by research and evidence-based practices. As every effort to divert youth from the adverse experience of detention and emphasized community-based programs, those who remain in custody are individuals that pose the most significant risk to public safety. Secure detention facilities strive to identify the needs of each youth while displaying professionalism and promoting a culture founded upon prosocial interactions. The purpose of the Standards is to provide practitioners a resource outlining standards for youth in custody so we, as a field, strive to provide the best conditions of confinement for youth within secure walls across the state. The standards should assist in promoting a detention culture that is built on prosocial interactions and quality programming services. In accordance with the evidence-based principle of measuring relevant processes,1 these standards are expected to undergo continuous review and updating as new knowledge, skills, and methods develop through analysis of detention practice in Illinois and the ever-evolving, research-based findings within the field of community corrections.

Compliance:

The expectation is that each juvenile detention center incorporates these Juvenile Detention Standards and accordingly develop and follows written policies and procedures that fully comply with the standards set herein. These policies and procedures, and any further revisions, shall be submitted to the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts – Division of Probation Services for review and approval. Compliance with these Standards will be monitored by the Probation Services Division through an ongoing review process.