CJCJ is committed to monitoring the health and safety of youth in California’s state youth correctional system, the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). As part of this longstanding work, we have compiled a trove of otherwise unavailable data reports and made them public on our website. For the past year and a half, the state has not made these data available online — a decision that has severely hindered efforts to monitor DJJ at a critical juncture. CJCJ’s data collection allows advocates, concerned family members, and public officials to delve into critical information about youth, their experiences at DJJ, stark disparities in county reliance on the state system, and more.
Access to these data has become particularly important amid the recent state decision to close DJJ institutions in favor of close-to-home alternatives. On September 30th, Governor Newsom formally approved a plan to end most new admissions to DJJ on July 1, 2021 and fully empty the institutions over the next several years. This shift represents an unprecedented opportunity for California to put youths’ health and healing first by re-envisioning the juvenile justice system. To meet this moment, decision-makers must have data on DJJ’s current youth population, their needs, and the programming required to serve them at the local level.
To assist the work of planning for realignment, we requested ten years’ worth of data via a California Public Records Act request. The following reports can now be found on our website:
Data ReportsCOMPSTAT Operational Performance Measures provide data on DJJ’s population, staff use of force, violence, discipline, staffing, programming, healthcare, and more. These data are broken out by facility and provided on a monthly basis for July 2010 through June 2020.
Senate Bill 518 Reports provide annual summaries of the number of grievances filed with the Office of the Ombudsman that pertain to DJJ. These reports list the nature of each grievance, the actions taken to address the grievance, the number of referrals made, and the number of unresolved grievances. They are available for 2010 through 2018.
County Commitment Rate Reports provide data on the number of youth committed to DJJ each year broken out by county of origin and type of committing court (juvenile vs. adult). These reports are available for 2010 through 2019.
Fiscal Year Population Reports present DJJ’s population data on a fiscal year basis broken out by facility. These reports are available for FY 2010-11 through FY 2019 – 20.
Population Characteristics Reports break out DJJ’s population by age, gender, race and ethnicity, committing offense, committing county, committing court type (juvenile vs. adult), and board category. These reports are produced semi-annually. They are available for June 2010 through June 2020.
Population Overview Reports provide annual population data by race, ethnicity, gender, age, and offense. They also list counties with the largest number of DJJ commitments and include data on youths’ average length of stay broken out by gender, committing court type (juvenile vs. adult), and offense. These reports are available for 2010 through 2019.
Living Unit Population Reports provide monthly data on the number and ages of youth held in each of DJJ’s living units, including the Mental health Residential Unit, Sexual Behavior Treatment Program, and Behavior Treatment Program. These reports are available for January 2011 through June 2020.