§ 10A-2-7-502. Child adjudicated in need of supervision - Placement - Rehabilitative facilities – Mental health treatment.

A.  Whenever a child who has been adjudicated by the court as a child in need of supervision has been committed to the Office of Juvenile Affairs, the Office may place the child in the home of the child, the home of a relative of the child, foster home, group home, transitional living program, independent living program, community-based setting, rehabilitative facility or child care facility under the operation of or licensure of the state, or in a state school for the mentally retarded if eligible for admission thereto.  No child in need of supervision shall be placed in an Office-operated institution, other than a rehabilitative facility.

B.  The Office of Juvenile Affairs may establish and maintain one or more rehabilitative facilities to be used exclusively for the custody of children in need of supervision.  Each such facility shall be, primarily, a nonsecure facility having as its primary purpose the rehabilitation of children adjudicated to be in need of supervision.  Such facility shall have a bed capacity for no more than twenty children, and shall minimize the institutional atmosphere and prepare the child for reintegration into the community.  Provided however, that such facility may be designed and operated as a secure facility used exclusively for  children in need of supervision whom the court has specifically found to be so unmanageable, ungovernable and antisocial that no other reasonable alternative exists for treatment or restraint other than placement in such a secure facility.  Such facility shall not rely on locked rooms, fences, or physical restraints.

C.  A child in need of supervision who has been found by a court to be a minor in need of treatment shall be placed as provided by Section 2-2-804 of this title and the Inpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment of Minors Act.

Added by Laws 1968, c. 282, § 137, eff. Jan. 13, 1969.  Amended by Laws 1975, c. 187, § 1, emerg. eff. May 23, 1975; Laws 1977, c. 79, § 5; Laws 1978, c. 307, § 2, emerg. eff. May 10, 1978; Laws 1982, c. 312, § 28, operative Oct. 1, 1982; Laws 1985, c. 253, § 1, emerg. eff. July 15, 1985; Laws 1990, c. 238, § 9, emerg. eff. May 21, 1990; Laws 1992, c. 298, § 35; Laws 1995, c. 352, § 90, eff. July 1, 1995.  Renumbered from § 1137 of Title 10 by Laws 1995, c. 352, § 199, eff. July 1, 1995.  Amended by Laws 2002, c. 327, § 21, eff. July 1, 2002; Laws 2009, c. 234, § 15, emerg. eff. May 21, 2009.  Renumbered from § 7302-5.2 of Title 10 by Laws 2009, c. 234, § 173, emerg. eff. May 21, 2009.