Probation Department Policy/Procedure Manual

4.1 Case File Purging

Location Juvenile Services - Clerical
Section N/A
Subject 4.1 Case File Purging
Purpose To establish a procedure to ensure the regular purging of juvenile probation case files and prevent unnecessary accumulation of juvenile case files in the department’s limited storage space.
Effective Date 12/16/2019
Previous Effective Date 11/1/2022

 

Overview

WIC 826(a) states, “After five years from the date on which the jurisdiction of the juvenile court over a minor is terminated, the probation officer may destroy all records and papers in the proceedings concerning the minor.”

General Procedure

  1. The Administrative Assistants (AAs) assigned to the Juvenile Services Center (JSC) will pull Juvenile Probation case files to purge monthly.  The purge list is generated by Probation Automation personnel on the 1st of each month.
  1. AAs will pull the files from the list from the closed files storage room based on closure date.
  1. AAs will change the status of events in monitor.
    1. For Investigation events, change “Result” to “Purged” under Initial Setup screen.
    2. For Supervision events, change “Client State” to “Purged” and the value of the appropriate level of supervision will automatically precede “Purged” (i.e. WARDPurged, DEFJPurged, etc.) within three hours.
  2. AAs shred contents of file.

Remove any case identifying information (name, DOB, case number, etc…) from file folder.  If salvageable, set aside empty file folders for future use.