SB 987

Under current law, when a juvenile who is possibly involved with a delinquent

act is taken into custody and not released by the person who took the juvenile into

custody, a court intake worker must interview the juvenile and determine whether

to hold the juvenile temporarily in custody or release him or her. Current law

requires the intake worker to base that decision on whether probable cause exists to

believe that 1) the juvenile will commit injury to a person or property; 2) the parent,

guardian, legal custodian, or other responsible adult is neglecting, refusing, unable,

or unavailable to provide adequate supervision and that care and services to ensure

the juvenile's safety and well-being are not available or would be inadequate; or 3)

the juvenile will run away or be taken away so as to be unavailable for court

proceedings or administrative proceedings relating to a violation of conditions of

Department of Corrections supervision. Under current law, within 24 hours after the

end of the day on which the intake worker makes this decision, the juvenile court

must hold a hearing on whether to continue holding the juvenile in custody.

Instead of an intake worker determining whether to temporarily hold a juvenile

in custody or release him or her, the bill requires a judge to make this determination.

Under the bill, an intake worker must review the need to hold the juvenile in custody,

make a recommendation to a judge, and request an order from that judge regarding

whether or not to hold the juvenile in custody. Upon this request and

recommendation by an intake worker, the bill requires the judge to issue a signed

order stating whether the intake worker must hold or release the juvenile based on

the same probable cause criteria as under current law. Under the bill, if the judge

orders the juvenile to be released, the intake worker still determines to whom the

juvenile is released. Under the bill, if the judge orders the juvenile to be held in

custody, the intake worker still determines where a juvenile is placed and the

juvenile court still holds a hearing on whether to continue holding the juvenile in

custody within 24 hours after the end of the day on which the judge issues this order.