Juvenile Jail Roster

In 1998 the state of Wyoming officially began the process of bringing its juvenile incarceration methods into compliance with the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) of 1974. At that time 45 of the 48 continental states were in compliance with the provisions and core requirements. Wyoming was one of the three states not in compliance.

There are four core juvenile protections outlined by the JJDPA: the deinstitutionalization of status offenders and non-offenders, the removal of delinquent offenders from adult jails or lockups, sight and sound separation of juveniles, and disproportionate minority confinement. In 1997 three of the twenty-three counties in Wyoming did not hold juveniles in their jails. As of January 1, 2004 nine Wyoming counties were in full compliance with the four core requirements. Several other counties were in compliance with some but not all of the core requirements. The end goal of this project is to bring all twenty-three of Wyoming’s counties into compliance with the requirements of the JJDPA.

The Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center (WYSAC) was brought into the JJDPA project in an effort to help standardize the reporting of each individual jail’s juvenile incarceration data. Prior to their involvement, monthly paper reports were submitted to the Project Coordinator by fax, mail, or diskette. This process was time consuming, awkward, not standardized and prone to error. In order to help the jails report more accurate and timely data Assessments.com was brought into the project to develop a web-based reporting system. The system allows local jails to access a data base via the internet and enter their juvenile incarceration data directly from the jail. To date all county jails and two juvenile detention centers have access to the system.

WYSAC is presently contracted with the Wyoming County Commissioners Association (WCCA) to provide technical support for jail roster case managers and to create reports from the data entered into the jail roster. It is also working with Assessments.com to enhance the present system and the functions provided.

Overall the juvenile jail roster has proven to be an effective tool for gathering compliance information. Its use has managed to streamline the paper trail, standardize the data, reduce the number of reporting errors and give a snapshot of the juveniles being incarcerated in the state of Wyoming.

Project Team