Authority of Department as to juveniles committed to it; establishment of facilities; arrangements for temporary care

A. The Department is authorized and empowered to receive juveniles committed to it by the courts of the Commonwealth. The Department shall establish, staff and maintain facilities for the rehabilitation, education, training and confinement of such juveniles. The Department may make arrangements with satisfactory persons, institutions or agencies, or with cities or counties maintaining places of detention for juveniles, for the temporary care of such juveniles.

B. The Department may by mutual agreement with a locality or localities and, pursuant to standards promulgated pursuant to § 16.1-309.9 , establish detention homes for use by a locality or localities for pre-trial and post-dispositional detention pursuant to §§ 16.1-248.1 and 16.1-284.1 . The Department may collect by mutual agreement with a locality or localities and from any locality of this Commonwealth from which a juvenile is placed in such a detention home, the reasonable cost of maintaining such juvenile in such facility and a portion of the cost of construction of such facility. Such agreements shall be subject to approval by the General Assembly in the general appropriation act.

C. The Department shall collect data pertaining to the demographic characteristics of juveniles incarcerated in state juvenile correctional institutions, including, but not limited to, the race or ethnicity, age, and gender of such persons, and the types of and extent to which health-related problems are prevalent among such persons. Beginning July 1, 1997, such data shall be collected, tabulated quarterly, and reported by the Director to the Governor and the General Assembly at each regular session of the General Assembly thereafter.

Code 1950, §§ 53-324, 53-330, 63-291, 63-366, 63-367, 63-368, 63-369, 63.1-239, 63.1-245; 1950, p. 33; 1954, c. 262; 1956, cc. 127, 287; 1962, c. 437; 1968, c. 578; 1974, cc. 44, 45; 1975, c. 178; 1981, c. 487; 1982, c. 636, § 53.1-237; 1989, c. 733; 1991, c. 534; 1996, cc. 755 , 914 ; 1997, c. 894 ; 2012, cc. 803 , 835 ; 2022, cc. 414 , 415 .