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California Welfare And Institutions Code Section 206

Legal Research Home > California Lawyer > Welfare and Institutions Code > California Welfare And Institutions Code Section 206

Persons taken into custody and persons alleged to be within
the description of Section 300, or persons adjudged to be such and
made dependent children of the court pursuant to this chapter solely
upon that ground, shall be provided by the board of supervisors with
separate facilities segregated from persons either alleged or
adjudged to come within the description of Section 601 or 602 except
as provided in Section 16514.  Separate segregated facilities may be
provided in the juvenile hall or elsewhere.
   The facilities required by this section shall, with regard to
minors alleged or adjudged to come within Section 300, be nonsecure.

   For the purposes of this section, the term "secure facility" means
a facility which is designed and operated so as to insure that all
entrances to, and exits from, the facility are under the exclusive
control of the staff of the facility, whether or not the person being
detained has freedom of movement within the perimeters of the
facility, or which relies on locked rooms and buildings, fences, or
physical restraints in order to control behavior of its residents.
The term "nonsecure facility" means a facility that is not
characterized by the use of physically restricting construction,
hardware, and procedures and which provides its residents access to
the surrounding community with minimal supervision.  A facility shall
not be deemed secure due solely to any of the following conditions:
(1) the existence within the facility of a small room for the
protection of individual residents from themselves or others; (2) the
adoption of regulations establishing reasonable hours for residents
to come and go from the facility based upon a sensible and fair
balance between allowing residents free access to the community and
providing the staff with sufficient authority to maintain order,
limit unreasonable actions by residents, and to ensure that minors
placed in  their care do not come and go at all hours of the day and
night or absent themselves at will for days at a time; and (3) staff
control over ingress and egress no greater than that exercised by a
prudent parent.  The State Department of Social Services may adopt
regulations governing the use of small rooms pursuant to this
section.
   No minor described in this section may be held in temporary
custody in any building that contains a jail or lockup for the
confinement of adults, unless, while in the building, the minor is
under continuous supervision and is not permitted to come into or
remain in contact with adults in custody in the building.   In
addition, no minor who is alleged to be within the description of
Section 300 may be held in temporary custody in a building that
contains a jail or lockup for the confinement of adults, unless the
minor is under the direct and continuous supervision of a peace
officer or other child protective agency worker, as specified in
Section 11165.9 of the Penal Code, until temporary custody and
detention of the minor is assumed pursuant to Section 309.  However,
if a child protective agency worker is not available to supervise the
minor as certified by the law enforcement agency which has custody
of the minor, a trained volunteer may be directed to supervise the
minor.  The volunteer shall be trained and function under the
auspices of the agency which utilizes the volunteer.  The minor may
not remain under the supervision of the volunteer for more than three
hours.  A county which elects to utilize trained volunteers for the
temporary supervision of minors shall adopt guidelines for the
training of the volunteers which guidelines shall be approved by the
State Department of Social Services.  Each county which elects to
utilize trained volunteers for the temporary supervision of minors
shall report annually to the department on the number of volunteers
utilized, the number of minors under their supervision, and the
circumstances under which volunteers were utilized.
   No record of the detention of such a person shall be made or kept
by any law enforcement agency or the Department of Justice as a
record of arrest.

Last modified: January 12, 2009