• If state statutes permit or require, and if the affidavit to be handled formally alleges a misdemeanor or felony, photograph and fingerprint the youth. Fingerprinting and photographing alleged delinquent youth assists the juvenile justice court to accurately identify repeat offenders who may give false identification.
• Decide if the youth should be released with or without restrictions pending hearing on the charge or detained in secure or non-secure detention.
  State statutes generally provide authority to detain a youth prior to adjudication for three reasons:
  1. the youth is a danger to the community or likely to commit another serious offense;
  2. there is reason to believe that the youth will not appear at the scheduled court hearing if released; or,
  3. the youth’s safety requires detainment.

The JUVENILE JUSTICE GUIDELINES recommends a system that includes a variety of options for youth who should be released with restrictions pending the initial hearing or detained in secure or non-secure detention until the detention hearing. There are varying degrees of danger to the community and varying degrees of risk of absconding. A significant factor in assessing these risks is whether or not there is supervision available that will enforce restrictions so that secure detention is not required. Youth who would meet the criteria of release, except that they lack appropriate home supervision, can be appropriately placed at home with electronic monitoring, placed with appropriate relatives, or placed in non-secure facilities. To the extent possible, there should be sufficient resources and facilities available to provide release with restrictions and secure and non-secure options in every jurisdiction.

Professionals from assessment centers, receiving centers, and holdover programs can help determine the appropriate degree of security required, coordinate getting youth in the most appropriate setting, and ensure that youth do not end up in secure detention unnecessarily. Large jurisdictions should have staff secure and non-secure options in different locations than secure detention. Rural jurisdictions may need to create multi-use buildings with flexible areas that can shift from secure to non-secure depending on the detained population.

Youth who otherwise would be released but cannot be because a parent or custodian cannot be located, the parent or custodian is deemed to provide insufficient supervision, or the youth is in the custody of the child protection agency for foster care, should not be placed in secure detention by default. Youth whose own safety requires detainment should generally not be held in secure detention. These youth may include youth actively under the influence of illegal substances, youth in psychiatric crisis, or youth who need protection from an unsafe situation. In these instances, hospitals, treatment centers, or non-secure facilities are the appropriate places of detainment as opposed to secure juvenile detention.

The decision of which setting is most appropriate to the needs of the youth and community should be made immediately upon the youth’s arrival at detention intake. The decision should be guided by the use of a validated detention admission screen that is completed on every youth, to ensure consistency in decision-making. The detention admission screen should produce a score which determines whether secure detention is required due to high risk to reoffend or abscond. It should also identify special needs of the youth so that they can be addressed in secure detention and help identify appropriate alternatives if secure detention is not required. The detention admission screen should identify any medical, physical, mental health, or family violence issues, including a trauma history, that might place the youth’s safety in question or impact behavior management issues in the secure or non-secure detention setting. Courts should be particularly cognizant of the specific needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and gender non-conforming youth.

• If the decision is to release with or without restrictions, set the date for the initial hearing within two weeks, prepare the hearing notification packet, ensure the police, prosecutor, and victim are notified of the release, and release the youth to the parent or custodian.
  The juvenile justice court’s management information system should select a court date and generate documents for hearing notification so that they can be served on the youth and parent at release. When the summons is served, information should be provided to the youth and family that describes the juvenile justice court process, legal rights, and choices that need to be made at the first hearing. It should also provide information regarding options for obtaining counsel for the youth prior to the initial hearing, so that counsel has time to prepare, hearings do not need to be unnecessarily continued, and the process proceeds in as timely a fashion as possible.
  Any restrictions placed on the youth pending the initial juvenile justice court hearing should be provided in writing, thoroughly explained to the youth and parent or custodian, and signed by the youth and parent or custodian. Examples of restrictions used by juvenile justice courts in lieu of secure detention are covered in the next section of this chapter.
• If the decision is to detain the youth in secure or non-secure detention, set the detention hearing on the next business day, but no later than 48 hours (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays).
  The JUVENILE JUSTICE GUIDELINES recommends that, wherever possible, a juvenile justice court is able to hold detention hearings on Saturday mornings for youth admitted to detention Friday afternoon or evening.

Once the decision to detain has been made, intake should:

• Serve the youth with the affidavit and petition and explain what can be expected in detention and at the detention hearing. Intake should tell the youth what charges have been brought against him or her, explain detention rules and processes, and explain the decisions the juvenile justice court judge will make at the detention hearing. Intake should explain the role of counsel and how counsel will contact the youth prior to the detention hearing.
• Contact the parent, guardian, tribal entity (as appropriate) and custodian. Explain the circumstances and charges, when to appear for the juvenile justice court detention hearing, how to obtain counsel for the youth, and the decisions to be made at the first hearing. Permit the youth to talk to the parent, guardian, custodian, tribal official (as appropriate), or other significant adult.
• Process the youth for admission to secure or non-secure detention. This processing should include a mental health screen, including risk of suicide, and a substance abuse screen. The substance abuse screen may include a breathalyzer or urinalysis. Administering breathalyzers and urinalyses serve both to ensure the safety of the youth by identifying immediate medical treatment needs, and ensure protection of intake and detention staff from unanticipated aggressive behavior that may occur because the youth is under the influence of a behavior-altering substance. An assessment of levels of aggression, maturity, and trauma history should direct the decision on unit placement and inform detention staff of effective methods of behavior management. Physical health screens should occur at admission with full physical assessments provided within 48 hours.

When the youth is released or detained, consolidate all appropriate information, forward the information to the prosecutor, and place it into the juvenile justice court’s legal file. This includes the affidavit and petition and any additional police reports, documentation of to whom the child was released, if applicable, or documentation of the parent or custodian contact on a detained youth.

In some instances, the youth does not need to be detained but a parent or custodian or relative cannot be located. When this occurs, intake should arrange the release of the youth to an appropriate shelter care or non-secure holdover facility until the parent, custodian, or a relative can be located.

The next step is the detention hearing or initial hearing, which is covered in the next chapter.