General Considerations for ICJ Returns
As with all other compact provisions, the return process under the ICJ requires the courts and executive agencies in each member state to enforce the Compact and take all actions necessary and appropriate to effectuate the compact’s purposes and intent. See Interstate Compact for Juveniles, art. VII, § A(2) (2008); In re Pierce, 601 P.2d 1179, 1183 (Mont. 1979). Like its predecessor compact, the ICJ is a contract. “It remains a legal document that must be construed and applied in accordance with its terms. There is nothing in the nature of compacts generally or of this Compact in particular that counsels against ... ordering future performance called for by the Compact.” Texas v. New Mexico, 482 U.S. 124, 128 (1987). Once a compact has been “solemnly entered into between States by those who alone have political authority to speak for a State . . . it cannot be “unilaterally nullified ... by an organ of one of the contracting States.” West Virginia ex rel. Dyer v. Sims, 341 U.S. 22, 28 (1951); In re O.M., 565 A.2d 573, 580 (D.C. 1989).
The return of an out-of-state juvenile may occur under one of the four following broad categories:
- Release of non-delinquent runaways;
- Voluntary return;
- Non-voluntary return;
- Retaking/return of juveniles after failed transfer of supervision.
Some interstate runaways are subject to both the ICJ and the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC). “ICJ recognizes the authority of ICPC under Article V of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children and supports their authority to return ICPC youth who have run away from their out-of-state placement resulting in a demand for their return by the sending state. In the event a juvenile is held in a secure facility beyond twenty-four (24) hours (excluding weekends and holidays), the appropriate provisions of the ICJ Rules shall apply.” See ICJ Rule 6-104 (Interstate Comm’n for Juveniles 2024). Additional information about management of dual jurisdiction cases is available in the “Best Practice Guide for ICJ and ICPC Dual Jurisdiction Cases.”