juvenile detention

By federal law, juveniles cannot be placed in adult prisons. Juveniles may be detained in a jail or lockup for adults for no more than six hours during processing, and in that time, they must have no sight or sound contact with adult inmates according to the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018. The policy went into effect in December 2021. Add to that a huge decline in juvenile detention facilities. In 2000, the Unites States had 3,047 facilities holding 108,802 youth. In 2020, just 1,323 facilities were still open, housing 25,014 youth according to the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. In many cases, law enforcement has no choice but to send violent offenders back home.