Research Bulletin

              Examining pretrial juvenile detention
screening practices in Illinois
By Erica Hughes, ICJIA Research Analyst
Vol. 3, No. 1 November 2004
Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
Research Bulletin
The number of juvenile
delinquency petitions
handled by juvenile
courts rose steadily in Illinois in
the early 1990s. As a result, an
increase was seen in the number
of young offenders being held in
juvenile detention facilities pre-and
post-trial. This may have
contributed to overcrowding in
some of Illinois’ juvenile deten-tion
facilities, as well as an
overuse of detention for youth
who were neither a flight risk
Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor
Sheldon Sorosky, Chairman
Lori G. Levin, Executive Director
Research Bulletins are published periodically by the Illinois
Criminal Justice Information Authority. They focus on
research conducted by or for the Authority on a topic of
interest to Illinois criminal justice professionals and
policymakers.
This project was supported by grant #98-JN-FX-0112
awarded to the Justice Research and Statistics Association
by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Preven-tion.
Points of view in this document do not necessarily
represent the official position or policies of the U.S.
Department of Justice.
For more information about this or other publications from
the Authority, please contact the Authority’s Criminal
Justice Information Clearinghouse at 312-793-8550, or visit
our website at www.icjia.state.il.us
Printed by authority of the State of Illinois, November 2004.
nor a threat to him/herself or to
public safety. Status offenders,
such as minors who violate
curfew and underage drinking
laws, or are truant, also were
being detained. At the same
time, minority youth tended to
be over-represented in juvenile
detention facilities.
Several juvenile justice profes-sionals
play a role in determin-ing
whether or not youth are
detained prior to trial. At mini-mum,
law enforcement officers,
detention screeners, and judges play a role in deciding
whether or not a youth will be detained pre-trial. Law
enforcement officers typically contact an agency
responsible for detention screening when they believe
the juvenile should be detained. Screeners then make
the final determination of whether the minor will be
detained until a detention hearing. At the hearing, a
judge determines whether the minor will remain in
detention until his or her trial is completed.
State and local juvenile justice system planners and
government agencies in Illinois are working to ensure
that youth who are neither a flight risk nor a threat to
public safety and status offenders are not detained
prior to their trial, and that detention decisions do not
contribute to the over-representation of minority youth
held in detention facilities. This Research Bulletin
provides an overview of one element of detention
reform supported by the Illinois Juvenile Justice
The use of a scorable
instrument is intended to help
detention screeners make
consistent pre-trial detention
decisions and ensure that
detention screeners across
the state consider the same
factors when making pre-trial
detention decisions.