Juvenile detention facilities are a temporary and safe custody for juveniles who are accused of conduct subject to the agency of the court who require a restricted environment for their own or the community’s protection while pending legal action. PbS provides about 60 outcome measures for detention facilities. The outcome measures show how a facility’s services and performance meet the PbS standards in safety, order, security, programming (education), health/mental health services and justice. The outcome measures are available as easy-to-read bar graph reports available twice a year, showing change and improvement every six months as well as performance compared to similar facilities.
The outcomes are derived from information collected from surveys:
- One administrative form to collect general information about the facility, population, procedures and staff;
- All incident reports filed during each of the data collection months to provide the facility with the ability to analyze the frequency and kinds of incidents that are occurring;
- A minimum random sample of 30 youth records to capture information about youths’ experiences and services received during their time at the facility;
- A minimum random sample of 30 surveys of youths and staff to gather feedback about facility conditions, quality of life, staff-youth relationships and services; and
- Surveys of all families of youths visiting the facility to learn about the families’ experiences with the facility, relationships with the staff and ability to stay connected to their child.
All PbS facilities are provided with a PbS coach, a juvenile justice expert who provides support throughout the year by telephone and email and who visits once a year to guide implementation of PbS. The coach works with facilities to uses the data reports to develop Facility Improvement Plans (FIPs), which are entered into the PbS website and shared widely to engage agency leaders and staff in its implementation. Agency leaders, facility staff and the PbS coach monitors the FIP using on-line comments that create a living document for reform and records change strategy.