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Childhood on Trial: The Failure of Trying and Sentencing Youth in Adult Criminal court The Coalition for Juvenile Justice recently released this report identifying public safety and rehabilitative failures of our nation’s widespread “adult time for adult crime” policies, and reaffirms the effectiveness of retaining the vast majority of juvenile offenders in the juvenile court system. Click on links below for more information. National resolution Regarding Trying and Sentencing Youth Offenders in Juvenile Court Four Page Report Overview The complete report is available from CJJ for $10 per copy. Call 202-467-0864 X 0 or email info@juvejustice.org ++++++++++ Adult Prisons Harden Teens The Arizona Republic reports on what has happened in the decade since Arizona made it easier to send juveniles to adult prison. Today the state is churning out a tougher class of teenage criminals who are hitting the streets young and angry. The Arizona Republic studied youths in adult prisons in the state. The study showed that: - Non-violent juveniles are more likely than violent ones to come back to prison for committing a new violent crime within three years of release.
- The average juvenile imprisoned as an adult for a non-violent crime in Arizona serves 32 months in prison, twice as long as the national average for non-violent offenders.
- Arizona’s cycle of recidivism comes at a hefty cost. Each day the state spends nearly $150 per juvenile inmate, roughly three times the cost for an adult. For about a dollar a day more, Missouri’s Division of Youth Services has taken many juveniles convicted as adults out of the state prison and placed them in a secure, home-like facility.
++++++++++ Teen Murder Cases in the States Teen in Murder Case Won’t Be Tried As Adult Jake Reeder, a Henderson , Nev. teenager who fatally shot his best friend, will plead guilty in juvenile court to involuntary manslaughter, rather than being tried for murder as an adult. Reeder fatally shot his best friend while playing with a gun he thought was not loaded. In Nevada a minor charged with murder is automatically tried as an adult. The prosecution said that the teenager was charged with murder because, under Nevada law, the involuntary killing occurred in connection with unlawful acts – assault with a deadly weapon, aiming a firearm and drawing a firearm in a deadly manner. Another youth faces adult murder charges in a similar case, raising some questions about the state law that requires children charged with murder to be automatically tried as adults. Rocky Mendoza accidentally shot and killed his 14-year-old sister. Washington State Teens on Trial as Adults for Murdering Their Playmate Three boys set out to build a fort in the park. Two came back. The third was found crumpled under a willow tree. He had been clubbed and covered with three dozen cuts and stab wounds. His two friends, who have been charged with killing him, are the youngest murder suspects charged as adults in state history. At the time of the killing they were both 12 years and 4 months old. They continue to maintain their innocence. No Transfer to Adult Courtin Georgia If convicted, a 12-year-old boy who is alleged to have strangled an 8-year-old girl and left her body in the tall weeds of an empty lot would face only two years of detention. Georgia state law does not provide transfer to adult criminal court for murder committed by children under the age of 13. ++++++++++ In Miami , a Grand Jury determines whether a 14-year-old will be tried for Murder as an Adult It will be up to the Grand Jury to determine if Michael Hernandez will be indicted on the charge of first-degree murder in the throat-slashing death of a classmate two weeks ago. If it does, the decision may re-create the situation in which state law required a mandatory prison sentence of life without parole for then 14-year-old Lionel Tate. There are several proposals for changes in Florida law, but none have been made by the State legislature. One of those proposals is Tiffany’s Law, named after Tate’s victim. Tiffany’s Law would give judges discretion when sentencing a young teen convicted of a crime that mandates a life sentence in which the judge would be allowed to take the defendant’s age into consideration. ++++++++++ Trying and Sentencing Juveniles as Adults: An Analysis of State Transfer and Blended Sentencing Laws This report, written by Patrick Griffin, summarizes state transfer and blended sentencing laws enacted through the 2002 legislative sessions. It builds on NCJJ’s previous legislative analyses of state responses to serious juvenile crime. Detailed summaries of individual states’ transfer and blended sentencing laws are available on line in an appendix to this report at the NCJJ State Juvenile Justice web site at www.ncjj.org/stateprofiles. 23 page pdf file. ++++++++++ Juvenile Crime in Washington D.C. The Washington Post reported in early December about a rise in juvenile crime in the District after a steady decline for a decade and proposed bills to make it easier to try juveniles as adults. Jeffrey Butts of the Urban Institute wrote a report about Washington ’s juvenile crime and the proposed remedies. He says, “While such policies may be popular with the public they will have very little effect on overall public safety and may even increase the odds that youth will commit serious crime in the future.” Read Violent Crime Arrests Up for D.C. Juveniles Read Butts’ Report Juvenile Crime in Washington , D.C. ++++++++++ Mark Soler Comments on the Mepham High School Team Training Camp Assaults (The link on this is iffy. If you can't get this to come up on your screen, email me and I'll send it to you.) Mark Soler, the president of the Youth Law Center, a national public interest law firm that works on juvenile justice reform, believes that juvenile court Judge Conway’s ruling was the correct one. Many relatives of the victims and other members of the community denounced Conway ’s ruling fearing the three offenders would get off with a slap on the wrist. Soler raises a number of questions concerning the maturity, judgment and impulse control of adolescents; the behavior of kids in groups; the other 54 students in the training camp; and why did these three boys act in this predatory and brutal way. He concludes with support for the decision to retain this case in juvenile court. . He concludes with support for the decision to retain this case in juvenile court. . He concludes with support for the decision to retain this case in juvenile court. ++++++++++ Juvenile Transfer in Florida A study of juvenile transfer to adult criminal court begun in 1995 in Florida concludes that transferring Florida youth to the adult criminal system is more likely to aggravate recidivism than to stop it. The study is over 100 pages in length but if you read or download the first 13 pages you’ll get the gist of it. ++++++++++ More Than Meets the Eye: Rethinking Assessment, Competency and Sentencing for a Harsher Era in Juvenile Justice This ABA publication is now available for download on the Internet. It is quite long, so is divided into chapters to make downloading easier. Chapters: - Experts for Juveniles At Risk of Adult Sentences,
- Juveniles’ Competence to Stand Trial,
- Defense-based Sentencing and Elements of a Juvenile Defendant’s Dispositional Plan.
The appendices include a competency screening test with its companion handbook. ++++++++++ Florida Study: Youth tried as adults who are given adult sentences are twice as likely to re-offend as youth who are sentenced to juvenile justice programs. - Over a one-year period, almost 90% of the youth sentenced to adult probation or boot camp re-offended or violated the terms of their sentences.
- In contrast, 40% of youth who received juvenile justice sanctions (mostly year-long juvenile residential programs or probation) re-offended or violated their sentences.
- The youth given juvenile justice sanctions had lower re-offense rates even when they had similar delinquency histories and charges.
The study is part of the Florida Juvenile Sentencing Advocacy Project (JSAP), a project that provided information that helps adult court judges make informed sentencing decisions. JSAP presents more in-depth assessment of the youth’s background, tells the study of the youth’s life experience, and provides key information on their development judges and prosecutors may use to decide whether juvenile court sanctions are appropriate. An evaluation of JSAP in the first year of the program showed the number of youth receiving juvenile court sanctions increased 350% from 1998 to 1999. Scroll to the end of the article to link to the JSAP study of re-offense rates. ++++++++++ Research Says Thousands of Juveniles Tried as Adults May Be Incompetent to Stand Trial A study released Monday, March 3, examined 1,400 males and females in four jurisdictions. Researchers found that one-third of the 11 to 13 year olds studied and 20 percent of those 14 or 15 years old have levels of reasoning and awareness comparable to mentally ill adults judged not competent to stand trial. Researchers concluded that age and intelligence were the most significant factors in determining a youth’s ability to understand the judicial process. They studied 11 to 24 year olds in Los Angeles , Philadelphia , north Florida and northern and eastern Virginia . Half of those studied were in juvenile detention. Half were living in the community. When compared to young adults -- Children 11 to 13 were more than three times as likely to be found “seriously impaired” in understanding the judicial process and aiding their own defense. Children 14 or 15 were twice as likely to be seriously impaired in such awareness and reasoning. Listen to an NPR report on the research or read the newspaper article. ++++++++++ Amicus Brief Filed on Proposition 21 in California The group of organizations who are partners in the Building Blocks for Youth* coalition have filed an amicus brief which argues that Proposition 21 in California would result in racial disparities in the application of the law adversely affecting youth of color, would not reduce crime or increase public safety, and would result in serious harm to youth prosecuted under the new law. The brief states that: "The overwhelming weight of research shows that increased prosecution of juveniles in criminal court does nothing to increase public safety and disproportionately harms young offenders. Proposition 21 will only serve to exacerbate the problem of racial disparities in the justice system for youth of color." *The Youth Law Center, the Juvenile Law Center, the Children’s Defense Fund, he Child Welfare League of America, the National Council of La Raza, the national Mental Health Association, the National Urban League, and the Sentencing Project. Obtain the full brief in pdf format here. ++++++++++ Youth Crime/Adult Time: Is Justice Served? - This new report from Building Blocks for Youth concludes that prosecuting juveniles in adult criminal court through direct filing by prosecutors and statutory exclusion laws casts too wide a net, sending many young people into adult courts and jails for non-violent charges. The report was released October 26 and was published by a consortium of juvenile justice agencies. See the Executive Summary. The entire report is downloadable. ++++++++++ Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court in Florida: The 1994 Reforms - Since 1995 OJJDP has funded a multifaceted study of juvenile transfers to criminal court in Florida. By the late 1980s, most transfers in Florida occurred through prosecutors' filing charges directly in criminal court. In 1994 the Florida legislature considerably expanded transfer provisions under state law. This fact sheet describes the impact of those changes. Available online at http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/pubs/fact.html#fs200122 |
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