Getting Access to Juvenile Court Hearings in Dependency Cases

Written by a reporter, Barbara White Stack of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and intended for reporters, this article looks at the issue of confidentiality in dependency cases from the point of view of the press. The author provides advice to reporters who want to cover a dependency case that normally would be closed.  Interesting reading.

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Disclosure of Confidential Child Abuse and Neglect Records

This entry from NCCAN’s State Statutes Series 2005 is a brief overview of state statutes on the confidentiality of child abuse and neglect records.

From this document:

• In approximately 23 States and the District of Columbia, some disclosure of information is allowed in cases in which abuse or neglect of the child has resulted in a fatality or near fatality.
  
  In five States the alleged perpetrator of the abuse must be criminally charged with causing the fatality or near fatality before information may be disclosed.
  
• Approximately 12 states allow disclosure of information for the purpose of clarifying or correcting the record when information has already been made public through another source.

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Confidentiality has been characteristic of juvenile courts since the first juvenile court began in Chicago in 1899. The purpose of confidentiality is to protect juveniles from stigmatization for the rest of their lives for acts committed while they were children.  Confidentiality has been examined and reconsidered by state legislatures in the past decade with the result that many States have either eliminated confidentiality altogether from their juvenile courts or substantially amended their confidentiality statutes. 

Juvenile confidentiality has two aspects, confidentiality of records and confidentiality of proceedings. In general, confidentiality of proceedings has been more relaxed in application than confidentiality of records because of the variety and nature of the reports and information they contain about the juvenile and his/her family. This column will look at confidentiality in juvenile delinquency cases only, not juvenile dependency cases (child abuse, neglect).

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges has addressed confidentiality on three separate occasions.  Click on the links below for details on each:

The Juvenile Court and Serious Offenders: 38 Recommendations, published by NCJFCJ in 1984, and accepted by its membership as Council policy, confidentiality is addressed in a series of five recommendations. (Available for purchase in our Publications Catalog.)

Chapter V - Confidentiality 

1. Open hearings - Fact finding hearings involving juveniles charged with criminal law violations and hearings for transfer to adult criminal court should generally be open to the public while dispositional hearings should generally be closed. In a given case the court should exercise discretion to open or close the hearing to the public.
2. Police Should Be Informed of Court Actions in Their Cases - Juvenile courts should provide a law enforcement agency with the legal charge and disposition of juveniles referred by such agency fro criminal law violations.
3. Juvenile Records Should Be Provided to Adult Courts When Sentencing - Once a person has been convicted of a crime in adult criminal court, the legal record of any findings of guilt of charges of a criminal law violation in juvenile court should be made available to the adult criminal court upon its request.
4. Legal Records of Juvenile Should Be Open to Those Who Need to Know - Legal records of juveniles adjudicated for criminal law violations should be open to the child, the parents, the child’s attorney, the guardian ad litem, the prosecutor and, at the discretion of the judge, to any other person having a legitimate interest. "Legal" records would not include social histories, medical and psychological reports, educational records or a transcript of the dispositional hearings.
5. The Effects of Expunging Juvenile Records Should be Researched - A study should be authorized to review the practice of sealing and expunging juvenile records to determine the impact on the administration of juvenile and criminal justice.

Commentary paragraphs for each recommendation have not been included. If you would like to see the entire chapter with comments, please email me your name and address and I'll be pleased to send them to you. 

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Traditional notions of secrecy and confidentiality should be re-examined and relaxed to promote public confidence in the court’s work. The public has a right to know how courts deal with children and families. The court should be open to the media, interested professionals and students and, when appropriate, the public, in order to hold itself accountable, educate others, and encourage greater community participation.

If you would like to have a copy of the entire statement, please email me your name and address and I'll send you a copy. 

Recommendations on Juvenile Court Confidentiality from the Janiculum Project of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, 1998

The proceedings in juvenile and family court shall be held in open court unless the welfare of the child would be adversely affected.

The legal history of juvenile and family court cases shall be open to the public. Other court records, such as family studies, social histories, and psychiatric and psychological evaluations shall be accessible to all authorized court participants, but maintained as confidential from others unless good cause for access is shown.

These recommendations also include commentary that is not included here. If you would like to see the complete recommendations with commentary please email me with your name and address and I'll send a copy to you. 

The links below look at confidentiality in relation to the media, information sharing among concerned parties, and in making juvenile court records available for use by criminal courts and prosecutors.

Juvenile Justice Reform Initiatives in the States 1994-1996: Juvenile Proceedings and Records - From OJJDP, history and development of the movement to guard the privacy of youth offenders, with section on the SHOCAP program and information sharing,  recent changes in state law.

National Conference on Juvenile Justice Records: Appropriate Criminal and Noncriminal Justice Uses - Speaker presentations at the May 1996 conference on collection and use of juvenile records sponsored by BJS and SEARCH.

State Laws: An Analysis of Current State Level Juvenile Justice Legislation - this site addresses interagency information sharing. Primarily intended for social welfare agencies. Last updated January 2001.

Use of Juvenile Records in Criminal Court - Juvenile Forensic Fact Sheet from the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Scroll down to "Adjudicating and Sentencing Juveniles as Adults." Check out the other fact sheets while you're there. 

Juvenile Records and Confidentiality Issues - Written by Dakota County, Minnesota,  County Attorney James C. Beckstrom - This  article addresses the poor quality of juvenile records, record sharing, access to juvenile records, and issues to be addressed in establishing a computerized record keeping and information system.

Private Rights Versus Safety: Should juvenile records be open to schools? - confidentiality and information sharing from the point of view of the schools.

A Media Policy for Juvenile Offenders: Does the Publication Fit the Crime? - From the Juvenile Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, a lengthy and comprehensive discussion of the media and juvenile courts.

Access to Juvenile Courts: A Reporter’s Guide to Proceedings and Documents in the 50 States and D.C. - From the other side of the coin, an interesting look at confidentiality as a barrier to the proper reporting of news and how it can be overcome.