Institution facilities are defined as secure facilities which include detention centers, orientation and diagnostic assessment centers, transfer facilities, boot camps, youth ranches and camps, institutions and state schools, and transitional facilities. Some juvenile correctional facilities look very much like adult prisons. Others seem very much like "home." Private facilities continue to play a substantial role in the long-term custody of juveniles, in contrast to adult correctional systems. In fact, nationwide there are more than twice as many privately operated juvenile facilities as publicly operated facilities, although private facilities hold less than half as many juveniles as are held in public facilities. .
The varied locations of these facilities is a clear indicator of diversity in both function and correctional style of the jurisdiction. Juveniles that stay in these facilities are generally classified into to (2) groups. There are the juveniles that are awaiting a detention or adjudication hearing and you have the juveniles that are committed who have been placed with a juvenile court or other juvenile justice administration body. Juveniles remain in detention until a judge at a detention hearing decides whether to release or keep them. Once adjudicated, the juvenile can be released based on acquittal, sentenced to a community sanction, or committed by the judge to the state-level department of corrections. The following are commonly institutions for juvenile offenders. .
Juvenile Detention Facilities are short term secure units that house juveniles awaiting court hearings or adjudications. Commonly when a police officer detains a juvenile for an offense and formally files charges, the juvenile is taken to a detention center. The juvenile detention facility has fewer expectations than other juvenile correction facilities as juveniles are housed for short-term stays and later released following a hearing to the juvenile's parents and guardians, foster care, or to a non-secure short-term placement facility.
