Answer:
To release the juveniles from detention
To protect the juveniles from devolving into isolation and depression
The law provides that detained juveniles must be taken to court within 24 to 48 hrs and their cases should be heard earlier than the released juvenile cases
Explanation:
A juvenile detention center is a correctional facility for persons below the age of maturity. Its purpose is to keep youths who have committed offences off the streets. It also serves as a rehabilitative institution to help reform these youths to be upright adults and beneficial to society.
It is the law that a juvenile must be released from detention where detained except there exist certain extreme circumstances that would prevent the juvenile from being released. The law also provides that most juveniles in detention must be brought before the court within 24 to 48 hours for a detention hearing.
During the detention hearing, the court will look at some factors like the age of the juvenile, sex of the juvenile, the nature of the offence committed by the juvenile, the degree of the evidence presented by the police, the past records and family history of the juvenile, whether the parent of the juvenile can control the juvenile when released from detention.
It is however important that detained juveniles are not delayed unnecessarily in the detention centers and have their cases heard swiftly and expeditiously. This is mainly to protect the young impressionable persons from devolving into isolation and depression.
Being that as it is, the sterile environment of the correctional facilities can be very unbearable for fully grown adults. it can only be imagined what havoc such an environment can cause on a person of a young age.
Aside from the mental and emotional strain being locked up on young children, it is important that young people who have committed minor offences not mixed up with more hardened criminals who can assert dangerous influences on them.
Lastly, it is important that a juvenile is given a safe and healthy environment to thrive and grow, a home to feel safe and company of good friends and adults to look up to but the environment of a juvenile detention will never be sufficient to instill the values that are essential to the upbringing of a child.
Therefore, it makes it of prime importance for the juvenile court to hear the cases of detained juveniles earlier in hopes of getting them out of the system and into more loving warm spaces.
