D.J.R. v. Christean Consent Decree

D.J.R. v. Christean was a federal civil rights class action which challenged the use of excessive and unnecessary ‘preventive’ pretrial detention of children in the Salt Lake County Detention Center. The Detention Center’s records revealed that less than five percent of the 2,200 children detained during 1982 were charged with serious crimes against persons, and that more than 90% were released to parents or community programs after being locked up for a few days. The lawsuit was settled by a consent decree which established detention guidelines and significantly reduced the numbers of children detained.