Residential Programs

Number of Youths in Placement In 1999, nearly one in every four adjudicated delinquency cases resulted in out-of-home placement. Placement cases had grown 24 percent in less than 10 years, from 124,900 in 1990 to 155,200 in 1999. The largest percentage increase was in the number of drug offense cases resulting in placement, which grew 73 percent from 1990 to 1999 (Puzzanchera 2003). However, recent census of residential facilities has demonstrated a significant decline in the number of youths in placement. In 2003, there were more than 101,000 juveniles in placement (Sedlak and McPherson 2010). In 2006, there were about 93,000 juveniles in residential placement (Sickmund, Sladky, and Kang 2008), and by 2008 there were just over 86,000 juveniles in public or private residential placement facilities (Sickmund 2010). Although there was a 26 percent decline in the placement rates of juveniles between 1998 and 2008, the falloff was not as sharp as the decline in arrest rates of juveniles during this time (33 percent).