The Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) is a detention facility for minors between the ages of ten and up to twenty-one who are subject to Juvenile Court or Adult Criminal Court jurisdiction. “Juvenile detention is defined as…the temporary and safe custody of juveniles who are accused of conduct subject to the jurisdiction of the court who require a restricted environment for their own or the community’s protection while pending legal action.”

Residents in juvenile detention are still presumed innocent. By its very nature, juvenile detention is temporary.  At the JTDC, the median length of stay for residents in 2015 was 11 days, in 2016, the median dropped to 9 days and for 2017, there was a slight increase to 12 days.