Pennsylvania - PA Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers
Models for Change Mentioned
The Times (Shreveport, LA)
‘Reform helps ease overcrowding’ – July 9, 2010
The small cell blocks inside of Caddo Juvenile Detention Center are reserved mostly for teens charged with armed robbery, sex crimes and other violent felony offenses… But a reform aimed to cure the problem has proved successful. The average occupancy at the facility is 23 to 25 youths a day… In 2006, Caddo partnered with the MacArthur Foundation and its Models for Change, tools to assist officials in making processing and placement decisions for young offenders…
Youth Today
‘New Legal Theory Aims at Racial Disparities’ – August 1, 2010
(Subscription required)
Harrisburg, Pa. – A series of hearings here last month marked the first step in what promises to be an unorthodox attempt to force states to deal with disproportionate numbers of minorities in their juvenile justice systems…The commonwealth is in a statewide reform partnership with the James D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change Initiative, and is home to several successful alternative programs, including Youth Advocate Programs, a national provider based in Harrisburg…
Pennsylvania Summary
The Philadelphia Inquirer
‘Luzerne County 'cash for kids' defendants finding wheels of justice spin slowly’ – June 27, 2010
As Jesse Miers remembers it, the judge took barely a minute to convict him of possessing a stolen pistol… So Miers, now 20, was relieved last year when he heard that his record would be cleared, along with those of about 4,500 other juvenile defendants trapped in Luzerne County's "cash for kids" scandal…
Clarion News
‘Clarion County contracts for legal services’ – June 29, 2010
Clarion County commissioners approved a public defender contract with the Clarion law firm of Garbarino, Neely, Hindman & Huwar… Commissioner Donna Hartle said the contract is actually a renewal of an agreement the county had with the law firm to provide public defender services for juvenile defendants…
The Patriot-News (Harrisburg)
‘Pennsylvania House approves plan to make 'sexting' a crime’ – June 29, 2010
Sexting, sending nude or inappropriate pictures via cell phone or e-mail, would be a misdemeanor for teenagers under a plan approved by the state House today. The House voted to sign off on the plan by state Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, 163-36. The bill now heads to the state Senate… "This is a parental problem ... This is a family problem. This is a moral problem," said state Rep. Kathy Manderino, D-Philadelphia. "This should not be made a criminal problem…
The Philadelphia Inquirer
‘Editorial: Wipe clean the records’ – June 30,2010
The painfully slow pace of expunging juvenile delinquency records for thousands of children caught up in the Luzerne County kids-for-cash scandal shows that it can take years to redress an injustice that took only minutes to perpetrate…
The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre)
‘Local Commentary: County can take the lead in ensuring juvenile justice’ – June 30, 2010
The Luzerne County judicial scandal has provided an opportunity to re-examine how Pennsylvania helps its youth and to create the best youth courts in America…
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
‘Bill gives Pennsylvania DAs options in teen sexting cases’ – June 30, 2010
A bill, approved Tuesday by the state House, would establish different levels of severity for criminal charges that can be filed against teens younger than 18 accused of sexting -- the sending of nude or semi-nude photos via cell phone. The measure passed in the House, 163-36, and now moves to the Senate…
The Times Tribune (Scranton)
‘Juvenile center at heart of scandal no longer used for detention’ – July 1, 2010
The privately owned Pittston Twp. juvenile center at the heart of a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme is no longer providing detention services, forcing probation officers to truck young defendants an hour or more for court hearings in Luzerne County, officials said…
The Times Tribune (Scranton)
‘House approves juvenile justice bills’ – July 1, 2010
A bill to create a $500,000 state fund to provide restitution to victims of juvenile crime in Luzerne County was approved by House lawmakers…The House voted 125-76 for the restitution fund bill for Luzerne County residents who were victims of juvenile crime, but didn't receive any court-ordered restitution due to fallout from the Luzerne County courthouse scandal… Also approved 170-30 was a bill to give the state Office of Victim Advocate authority to advocate for victims of juvenile crime…
The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre)
‘A regional juvie center considered’ – July 2, 2010
Luzerne County Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla said she’d like to revive discussions with neighboring counties about establishing a regional juvenile detention center in light of PA Child Care’s recent decision to stop offering detention housing at its Pittston Township facility…
The Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre)
‘Task force: Juvenile justice improving’ – July 2, 2010
The Luzerne County Juvenile Justice Victim Task Force has been trying to change "the culture" of juvenile justice in the county since May 2009, two task force officials said Thursday. James Davis, a mental health specialist for the Luzerne County Mental Health/Mental Retardation Agency, and Michael Zimmerman, executive director of the Family Service Association of Wyoming Valley, talked to The Citizens' Voice editorial board and claimed some accomplishments…
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
‘Hempfield juvenile facility may reopen soon’ – July 2, 2010
Inspectors are set to walk through the renovated Regional Youth Services Center in Hempfield today, which could pave the way for reopening the juvenile detention center next week... Originally set to cost nearly $4.5 million last year, the project cost has increased because of construction issues as well as a decision to add an eight-bed youth shelter…
The Times-Tribune (Scranton)
‘Opinion: Meeting duty to victims’ – July 3, 2010
…The bill, which passed 125-76, would provide $500,000 for victims of juvenile crime in Luzerne County. Those people otherwise would not receive restitution because the Supreme Court cleared the records of about 5,000 juveniles whose cases were handled by former Judge Mark Ciavarella…
The Patriot-News (Harrisburg)
‘Righting a wrong: 'Cash for kids' victims need immediate help’ – July 4, 2010
Closure. That’s what the Luzerne County families and the youth sent to detention centers in the “cash for kids” scandal want at this point…
The Morning Call (Allentown)
‘Program to help juveniles’ – July 5, 2010
Boys who've run afoul of the law in the Lehigh Valley could soon be helped by a program that will keep them out of the region's juvenile detention facilities. Area officials are getting a $300,000 state grant to help set up an evening program that will offer counseling and other supervision to juvenile offenders, but will allow them to return home at night and to their schools during the day…
The Patriot-News (Harrisburg)
‘Editorial: With the state budget done: now what? There's a growing list...’ – July 7, 2010
Pennsylvania has a budget — imperfect, but at least done nearly on time this year. Now what?... Juvenile justice — putting a conclusive end to the tragedy in Luzerne County. This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue…
The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre)
‘Skrep, Vonderheid named in juvie suit’ – July 8, 2010
Former Luzerne County judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella and other persons implicated in the kids-for-cash scheme have been named as defendants in another federal class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of juveniles who allege they were wrongly incarcerated… It differs in that it alleges several former county officials, including former commissioners Greg Skrepenak and Todd Vonderheid and former chief manager Sam Guesto, played an active role in the alleged conspiracy…
The Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre)
‘Class action suit claims former commissioners, others helped judges in kids-for-cash scheme’ – July 9, 2010
The latest lawsuit arising from the Luzerne County kids-for-cash scandal accuses former commissioners Greg Skrepenak and Todd Vonderheid and other officials of aiding and abetting two judges who schemed to ship thousands of juveniles to a pair of for-profit detention centers…
National Summary
Florida Times-Union
‘'Redirection' effort helps keep youths out of prison later’ – June 26, 2010
By the time her daughter was arrested, Letitia Alexander was overwhelmed… When she was charged with disorderly conduct and vandalism, she could have been sent to a residential commitment center run by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. Instead, Alexander's daughter was enrolled in a 5-year-old program that is showing impressive results locally and statewide…
Tulsa World (OK)
‘Youth prosecutions targeted’ – June 28, 2010
Reducing the number of minority youths in the juvenile justice system is the goal of a community initiative under way after the Community Service Council received a federal grant last year. A memorandum of understanding among several agencies dedicated to the Tulsa County Disproportionate Minority Contact Reduction Initiative will be signed at 10 a.m. Monday…
Tulsa World (OK)
‘Coalition to target racial disparity in juvenile justice system’ – June 29, 2010
Minority youths are over-represented in five of the nine points of contact in the juvenile justice system, data from the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs show… Eighteen representatives from Tulsa County agencies signed an agreement Monday to work as a group to examine data for reasons for the racial disparity, design plans to address the causes and put the plans into action…
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
‘Keep state's juvenile justice system strong’ – June 29, 2010
No obstacle is greater than reaching and teaching children who are incarcerated at a young age. Students sentenced to juvenile correctional schools often come from challenging home environments, and many have undiagnosed medical, emotional or learning disabilities… Wisconsin gets solid results when it comes to turning around young offenders…
The Baltimore Sun (MD)
‘The wrong solution for troubled youth’ – June 29, 2010
Despite significant protests, Maryland appears to be moving full steam ahead with a project to construct a new $100 million jail to house youth offenders who are being tried as adults, with a bid conference on the project scheduled for Wednesday. Gov. Martin O'Malley and other leaders are addressing the right problem — the current practice of housing youth offenders in Baltimore's adult detention center — but building a new youth jail is the wrong solution…
Youth Today
‘New Walsh Act Rules Allow States to Shield Juveniles...Sort Of’ – June 29, 2010
The Justice Department proposed new rules this summer that would make it optional for states to include most juvenile sex offenders on a public database. The change was meant to assuage the concerns of some states’ officials about subjecting young offenders to being named on a public list. Juvenile justice advocates say they find the new proposal confusing, so JJ Today went looking for some answers…
AFRO (Washington, DC)
‘Female Detention Center to Open in Southeast’ – June 30, 2010
For years, because it lacked adequate housing for juvenile offenders, the District resorted to placing them in facilities outside the city; most times, in other states as far as 300 miles away. This was particularly true for females… Now, Howard University has announced a partnership with the District that, at the onset, will enable at least six delinquent females, ages 15 to 20, to serve out their court-ordered sentences at the new Lillian D. Worthington Residential facility…
Omaha World-Herald (NE)
‘Walgreens suspect to juvenile court’ – July 1, 2010
A judge gave a second chance Wednesday to a 16-year-old boy involved in a robbery attempt at a Walgreens store in which a customer shot one would-be robber to death. Douglas County District Judge Marlon Polk ruled that JauVier Perkins, 16, will now have his case heard in juvenile court rather than adult court…
The Wall Street Journal
‘School Gets New $4 Million Home’ – July 1, 2010
To Patricia Lanza, the key to reaching at-risk youth is finding the activity or approach that unlocks each child's potential. To help children from foster care and the juvenile justice system find activities that are meaningful to them, the widow of Frank Lanza, co-founder of defense contractor L-3 Communications, donated $4 million to the Children's Village, a 150-year-old school that serves nearly 7,000 at-risk, foster care and runaway youth and families a year, to build a new activities center…
Cibola Beacon (NM)
‘County approves juvenile justice board ‘ – July 1, 2010
The Cibola County Commission recently approved the creation of a “juvenile justice continuum,” which will create a system of services and sanctions for juveniles arrested or referred to juvenile probation and parole. Minors at risk of arrest or probation will also be eligible for the services…
The Baltimore Sun (MD)
‘Should Maryland open juvenile records?’ – July 3, 2010
In Baltimore, so many youngsters are charged with crimes as adults that the state says it needs to spend $100 million to build a new jail for them. In Washington, lawmakers fed up with crime want to publicly expose the sealed criminal records of recidivist teenagers — to deter them from furthering their criminal careers and to hold the district's secretive and juvenile justice system accountable…
The Miami Herald (FL)
‘Juvenile diversion plan shows teens path away from trouble’ – July 6, 2010
If it weren't for a new program to help teens like him, Wayne Thurman figures he'd be behind bars -- or worse. ``I wasn't too happy when the judge sent me here,'' said Wayne, 17, who was suspended from school and later arrested. Then he was referred by the state attorney's office to a program that would give him a second chance. ``The judge said if I did it, the court would clear my record.''…
Omaha World-Herald (NE)
‘Teen faces 110 years in shootings’ – July 7, 2010
An Omaha teenager faces up to 110 years in prison for his involvement in two shootings, including one in which he shot at an Omaha police officer…
Youth Today
‘Well-Known New Orleans Juvenile Judge Steps Down Amid Controversy’ – July 7, 2010
Judge David Bell, the former chief juvenile judge of the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court in Louisiana and a prominent participant in a national detention reform movement, resigned last month instead of fighting allegations of sexual misconduct by several women involved in his court. Bell told Youth Today that he now regrets resigning…
KSPR-TV (MO)
‘Family Wants 12-year-old Shooting Suspect Rehabilitated’ – July 8, 2010
Family members are standing by the 12-year-old accused of killing his parents. They want him tried as a juvenile, rehabilitated and given a chance at a future…
The Associated Press (SC)
‘DJJ cuts schools, requires furloughs’ – July 8, 2010
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The state juvenile justice agency is cutting teachers, closing a residential program for minor offenders and requiring employee furloughs, but its director said Wednesday he remains positive about the coming year…
Cupertino Courier (CA)
‘Commentary: Juvenile hall is inappropriate for young minors’ – July 8, 2010
If you speak to anyone on the street, there will be an almost unanimous consensus that most minors under the age of 18 should not be placed in adult jail facilities where they would interact with hardened criminals and witness unsavory activities… It is with this similar reasoning that at my request, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors has adopted a policy that states that minors 12 years old and younger should not be placed in juvenile hall…
The Washington Post (DC)
‘D.C. youth justice agency's school improvements deemed 'remarkable'’ – July 9, 2010
The monitor overseeing the court-ordered reform of the District's juvenile justice agency said in a report filed Thursday that the city has staged a "remarkable" turnaround in how it educates juveniles in long-term detention and had moved a step closer to ending a long-running class-action lawsuit…
The Associated Press (LA)
‘School accused of shackling student sued’ – July 9, 2010
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A federal lawsuit was filed Thursday over the alleged handcuffing and shackling of a student at a New Orleans elementary school. The suit alleges a 6-year-old boy was arrested at Sarah T. Reed Elementary School by security officers and restrained to a chair several times after failing to follow directions…
The Times-Picayune (LA)
‘Juvenile suspect in Central City shooting arraigned as adult’ – July 9, 2010
The juvenile suspect of a May 1 shooting in Central City was arraigned as an adult on two attempted murder charges in Criminal District Court on Friday…
Youth Today
‘JJDPA Non-Compliance Rises in 2009’ – August 1, 2010
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Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act monitors issued seven findings of noncompliance to states in 2009, more than in any year since 2000. All of them pertained to the two most serious requirements, and most were in the three states that are frequent compliance offenders: Mississippi, South Carolina and Washington…
Top Stories – Models for Change Mentioned
Reform helps ease overcrowding
Occupancy for juvenile detention decreases
The Times (Shreveport, LA)
By Loresha Wilson
July 9, 2010
The small cell blocks inside of Caddo Juvenile Detention Center are reserved mostly for teens charged with armed robbery, sex crimes and other violent felony offenses.
Despite a reported increase in younger, more violent criminals on the streets of Shreveport — including two teen girls charged with the attempted murder of a 70-year-old youth center worker — the facility houses fewer juveniles per day than it has in years.
In Caddo Juvenile Detention Center, the daily occupancy dropped to nearly half of the average 45 to 50 children housed three years ago. Prior to 2007, juvenile officials struggled with overcrowding and young offenders making repeat visits.
But a reform aimed to cure the problem has proved successful. The average occupancy at the facility is 23 to 25 youths a day.
"Then we were running 45 kids in a 29-bed facility," said Edwin Scott, director Caddo's juvenile services department. "Detention should never be used for a scare tactic. It's to keep kids who are a threat to the community off the streets.
"We had to rethink what we do with juvenile justice and how we do business. And from that we've done several things that made some big differences."
In 2006, Caddo partnered with the McArthur Foundation and its Models for Change, tools to assist officials in making processing and placement decisions for young offenders. Ideally, the tools help with decision-making in a manner that fosters rehabilitation through interventions and decreases risk for delinquency in the future.
At the same time, Models for Change's focus is to reduce the number of youths in secure care facilities. In doing so, Caddo implemented SAVRY, Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youths, to determine the level of risks for each child booked into the detention center. Youths are assessed for the needs and risk, then serviced based on the individual levels.
"That helped Caddo form a plan," said Dr. Tom Grisso, with the MacArthur Foundation.
"They were doing that prior, but not with a lot of focus. We did a study on how Caddo was operating and found that more kids were being locked up than really needed to be.
The ones who get intensive service, go to detention, should be high-risk kids, and not all children who were being brought into the facility had such levels."
Grisso, who also is a clinical psychologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, stresses that keeping low-risk kids in detention causes their behavior to worsen, causing more harm than good.
Instead of using detention as a discipline option for nonviolent youth, Scott and parish administrators created community-based programs to better serve them and their parents. The Misdemeanor Referral Center was developed for youths who have committed minor offenses. It's maintained by the Rutherford House through a state Offices of Youth Development Grant.
Before the referral center opened, law enforcement officers would take misdemeanor offenders to the detention center until a guardian could pick them up. Now the juvenile is taken to the referral center, avoiding detention time and saving time and resources.
"We're not turning kids loose who commit armed robberies, sex offenses and homicides or felonies against another person," Scott said. "Those are the kids who need to be here.
We do have some who are released with conditions, but when we put all of them here, we are creating risks and it backfires on us." Another program, The Facts of Life, involves parents. The court orders the juveniles to attend eight sessions that focus on different areas of life.
"The bottom line, it's helping the kids," Scott said. "It's not just reducing the numbers, but giving the children the help they need. We've moved a certain population out of here without causing a safety issue to the community."
It costs Caddo roughly $200 a day to house a juvenile. The amount covers food, schooling, mental health and medical services. Youths entering Caddo Juvenile Detention Center are ages 10 to 16 and stay on average seven days, Scott said.
On Thursday, there were 27 juveniles in the facility. Scott say's he'll consider reassigning detention personnel to work with juveniles in the community if occupancy numbers continue to decline.
Caddo is the first parish in the state to adopt Models for Change. Debra K. DePrato, associate professor of Clinical Public Health and Preventive Medicine with LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, is working with other parishes to the implement needs and risk method.
"We've been working with state judges, district attorneys, probation officers and detention personnel," DePrato said. "It's really cutting edge, but it's also a cost benefit."
As part of the reform, Caddo also partnered with the Annie E. Casey Foundation and its Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative. The foundation implemented a risk assessment form that help determines whether a juvenile should go home or to detention and decides what steps to take next.
New Legal Theory Aims at Racial Disparities
State hearings lay groundwork for untested strategy on minority contact.
Youth Today
By John Kelly
August 1, 2010
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Harrisburg, Pa. – A series of hearings here last month marked the first step in what promises to be an unorthodox attempt to force states to deal with disproportionate numbers of minorities in their juvenile justice systems.
The hearings before committees of the Pennsylvania General Assembly included several hours of testimony about the financial and social benefits of alternatives to locking up juvenile delinquents. The idea: Make a record of various approaches to juvenile justice as a prelude to potential litigation against states that persist in having wide discrepancies between the percentages of white and black youths who are detained.
The sessions were put together by the Washington, D.C.- based Racial Justice Institute (RJI) and its founder, juvenile diversion pioneer Edgar Cahn… Cahn plans to expose juvenile justice systems to what he sees as better policies. That effort began in Pennsylvania…
However, Pennsylvania is an unlikely place for RJI to file suit. The commonwealth is in a statewide reform partnership with the James D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change Initiative, and is home to several successful alternative programs, including Youth Advocate Programs, a national provider based in Harrisburg…
Top Stories - Pennsylvania
Luzerne County 'cash for kids' defendants finding wheels of justice spin slowly
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Trish Wilson
June 27, 2010
PITTSTON, Pa. - As Jesse Miers remembers it, the judge took barely a minute to convict him of possessing a stolen pistol.
Then Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. declared, "Remanded until further notice." And Miers, 17 and without benefit of a lawyer, was shackled, chained, and sent off to a privately owned detention center - a jail whose owner, federal prosecutors say, was giving kickbacks to the judge in return for a steady supply of prisoners.
So Miers, now 20, was relieved last year when he heard that his record would be cleared, along with those of about 4,500 other juvenile defendants trapped in Luzerne County's "cash for kids" scandal.
But while the wheels of justice spun swiftly in finding Miers guilty, they are stuck in a slow grind when it comes to finding him relief.
More than a year after state courts first ordered Ciavarella's verdicts thrown out, fewer than 10 percent of the records have been expunged. Luzerne County is hiring staff to finish the job. But even then, thanks to the mounds of paperwork and multiple agencies involved, officials say it will take another year to erase all the records.
That leaves young people who are trying to enlist in the military, obtain student loans, win teacher certification, or apply for certain jobs entangled in red tape.
Some are still too young to job-hunt - 46 defendants were younger than 13 when Ciavarella jailed them, records show. The youngest was 10.
Miers, who took out a $3,000 loan to help pay his court costs, has earned a GED and a commercial driver's license. But he can't find work - not with the gun charge.
"It's kind of hard to get a job when you have something like that on your record," he said in an interview at his fiancée's home in Pittston. "I've tried to move on as much as I possibly could, but it won't happen until my record is expunged and it's out of my life for good."
Despite enormous attention and resources committed to cleaning up the Luzerne scandal - an intense federal investigation that has so far yielded criminal charges against two dozen people, at least four civil suits representing about 500 named plaintiffs, a state commission devoted to reform, and enough legal work to employ a city of lawyers - the young people are still being punished by the past.
Prosecutors say Ciavarella and another judge, Michael T. Conahan, took $2.8 million from two men - a builder of the jails and a co-owner - in return for sending hundreds of juveniles to the centers. Both judges have been removed from the bench. Conahan is pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge. Ciavarella says he is innocent.
According to state records, between 2003 and 2008 Ciavarella sent away 1,360 juveniles - hundreds of them without lawyers. Some were jailed for crimes as petty as throwing a rock in the road or spray-painting a stop sign. A father told the state commission that his son, 13, got 48 days in jail for fighting with his mother's boyfriend and throwing a steak at him.
Last month, in a painstakingly detailed report, the commission calculated that in five years, Ciavarella's judgments accounted for more than 22 percent of all Pennsylvania juveniles placed in detention - even though Luzerne has less than 3 percent of the state's population.
The problem with the expungements is that it takes a lot of people and many steps to wipe records clean.
Michael Vecchio, director of Luzerne County probation services, said the task would take his office, with its current staffing, six years.
So Vecchio began looking for aid, and this month won a grant that enables him to hire six more people. He said he hoped that, if they got started this week, all of the Ciavarella defendants' records would be expunged within a year.
Marsha Levick, a lawyer with the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia who was instrumental in pushing for investigations of the Luzerne scandal, said some of the records are paper, some are electronic, some are in microfiche.
Vecchio said each needed to be pulled, all charges and disposition figured out, and a list made of every law enforcement agency involved.
Then officials draft an order. It goes to the district attorney for concurrence, then to the clerk of courts to be certified, then to a judge to be signed.
That judge is Arthur E. Grim, the Berks County senior judge tapped by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to investigate the cases. He was the man who read through thousands of files and determined that Camarillo’s rulings were too tainted to be trusted.
So far, Grim has tried to get the most urgent expungements expedited, but he said there must be many hardships he does not yet know about.
"It's like casting a net on the sea and hoping you catch some fish," Grim said in an interview.
In his office in Berks County, Grim examines each case. After each is reviewed, it is sent back to Luzerne's probation office, and from there goes to every agency that had contact with the juvenile.
Everything must be erased: arrest reports, fingerprints, photographs, and any record, electronic or otherwise, that mentions the name of the defendant. Even DNA evidence must be destroyed.
"The average order has easily seven, eight, or more different places it needs to be sent," Grim explained.
He is particularly concerned, he said, about young adults who have run afoul of the law anew - and are serving sentences made longer by juvenile records from Luzerne County that should have been expunged by now.
So is David Fine, a Harrisburg lawyer who said he was appalled when he realized about six months ago that some Ciavarella defendants might be serving prison terms unjustly.
Fine's firm, K&L Gates - the Gates refers to former partner William Gates Sr., father of the Microsoft Corp. founder - has offices around the world. Fine went to Grim, and then to the state Supreme Court, and offered to have his firm do mammoth pro bono work: to sift through the 4,500 defendants' names and see if any are behind bars, and if so, whether past adjudications by Ciavarella were factored into their sentences.
Like Grim, Fine said the biggest concern was defendants who may be in jail today because of the slow pace of the expungements.
"What if you shouldn't still be there? And you're away from your family? And who knows what can happen? Prisons are dangerous places," the lawyer said. "That's someone's liberty. That should keep all of us up at night."
'Like an animal'
As Jesse Miers tells it, his taste of juvenile justice, Luzerne-style, began when a family friend asked him to keep an eye on her 12-year-old.
The boy had been in trouble. Miers knew what that was like - his parents had split up when he was 10. Since age 16, he'd lived on his own.
One day, Miers said, he saw the boy toting a laptop. Suspicious, he asked where it had come from. The boy volunteered, "Look what else I have" - and pulled out a gun.
"So I took it off him and smacked him upside the head," Miers said, "and asked him, 'What's wrong with you? Where did you get it?' "
The boy said he'd stolen it - so, Miers said, he tried to track down the owners. But he had the gun on him when he arrived the next day at his job in a detail shop, and told a friend, who told the boss, who asked for the gun.
"I gave it right over to him," Miers said. "It was a huge weight off my shoulders."
But a warrant was issued for his arrest, and before he knew it, Miers was standing before Ciavarella.
He'll never forget the shackles: They put a belt around his waist, and attached his wrists to it, while a chain draped down his legs, shackles binding his ankles.
"Like an animal," he said.
But he was lucky. Miers spent one week at PA Child Care and another at Western PA Child Care, the two centers at the heart of the scandal. Many of his fellow defendants were sent away for months.
After filling out more than 100 job applications, Miers said, he has his strategy down: If there is a question about a felony conviction, he says he has to leave but will come back later.
He's getting nervous about supporting his 2-year-old daughter and her mother, Staci Becker. They've been sweethearts since seventh grade. They plan to marry.
"What am I going to do when I get cut off unemployment? A box of diapers costs $30," Miers said. "I get $140 a week to take care of my family."
'Original victims'
The scandal's injuries don't end with the defendants. There are also the "original victims" - people who were victims of juvenile crimes in the cases now being expunged. Many who were owed restitution may not be compensated.
Last week, a state House subcommittee approved a bill that would provide restitution even after the juvenile cases are dismissed and the records expunged.
Meanwhile, the state has offered counseling and therapy to juvenile defendants caught up in the scandal. But the offer has drawn few takers. The toll-free hotline rarely rings.
Kathy Wallace, one of the therapists, no longer finds this surprising. She says Luzerne County families devised a nickname for the judge: "Abracadabra Ciavarella" - because he made children disappear.
"They don't trust the system," Wallace said. "I don't blame them, after all they've been through."
Clarion County contracts for legal services
Clarion News
By RODNEY L. SHERMAN
June 29, 2010
CLARION — Clarion County commissioners approved a public defender contract with the Clarion law firm of Garbarino, Neely, Hindman & Huwar.
The contract is effective as of April 1 of this year, and the county will pay a monthly retainer fee of $417.
Commissioner Donna Hartle said the contract is actually a renewal of an agreement the county had with the law firm to provide public defender services for juvenile defendants.
“The public defender’s office is required to have a ‘conflict attorney,’” explained Hartle. “For example, if six juveniles are arrested for an offense, and they all need a public defender, the public defender (Scott White) can represent only one of those defendants.
Hartle said the contract with Garbarino, Neely, Hindman & Huwar is for juvenile defendants only.
Hartle said which attorney would handle such cases is up to the law firm.
“In the past, it was Jim Alexander who handled the juvenile cases for them,” said Hartle. “I don’t know if they will assign one person to that task or not.”
Alexander died in 2009.
Hartle said the services provided by Garbarino, Neely, Hindman & Huwar will be on an as-needed basis. Hartle noted the county also contracts with a Brookvillebased law firm for similar services.
Pennsylvania House approves plan to make 'sexting' a crime
The Patriot-News (Harrisburg)
By KARI ANDREN
June 29, 2010
Sexting, sending nude or inappropriate pictures via cell phone or e-mail, would be a misdemeanor for teenagers under a plan approved by the state House today. The House voted to sign off on the plan by state Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, 163-36. The bill now heads to the state Senate.
Grove said his proposal allows district attorneys to charge teens ages 13 to 17 who "sext" with a summary offense or second-degree misdemeanor rather than charge the teen with a felony under child pornography laws. He also said the bill aims to keep inappropriate images out of the hands of child predators. "We cannot assume that sexting is normal expression of adolescent sexuality," Grove said.
Opponents of the measure said even a misdemeanor was too serious an offense for a teen who uses poor judgment or sends an image to a boyfriend or girlfriend in confidence. "This is a parental problem ... This is a family problem. This is a moral problem," said state Rep. Kathy Manderino, D-Philadelphia. "This should not be made a criminal problem.
"This all starts with a consensual activity that gets out of control. I'm sorry if it gets out of control, but there are other sexual acts that children get involved with that get out of control that are not a crime," Manderino said.
Editorial: Wipe clean the records
The Philadelphia Inquirer
June 30,2010
The painfully slow pace of expunging juvenile delinquency records for thousands of children caught up in the Luzerne County kids-for-cash scandal shows that it can take years to redress an injustice that took only minutes to perpetrate.
One year after Pennsylvania court officials ordered the records of 4,500 juvenile defendants wiped clean, it's simply unacceptable that only about 10 percent of the records have been expunged.
For the nearly 1,400 juveniles among this group who were jailed as part of what federal prosecutors allege was a kickback scheme to fill privately owned jails, the delay is all the more unconscionable.
These children - one as young as 10 - had perfunctory hearings before former Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., often after having been talked into waiving their right to a lawyer. Many were shackled and taken directly to jail from Ciavarella's courtroom.
Ciavarella faces corruption charges along with former Judge Michael T. Conahan. Prosecutors allege that the men took $2.8 million in payoffs from the operators of two juvenile detention centers. Conahan has agreed to plead to a conspiracy charge, while Ciavarella says he still plans to fight to prove his innocence.
The former judges' swift removal from the bench last year meant they could do no more harm to the Luzerne juveniles. The teens' future prospects, though, will be clouded for as long as it takes to expunge their records - whether they're applying for summer work, college and training programs, or even full-time jobs.
The fact that county officials only recently moved to hire a half-dozen additional staff devoted to the records is an indication that not all Luzerne officials have faced up to this judicial travesty.
That wouldn't be the first time.
In 2008, the state Supreme Court delayed intervening in the controversy for months and months - despite compelling evidence of injustice presented to the court by the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center.
At least with more staff on board, the head of Luzerne County probation services, Michael Vecchio, estimates the job can be completed in one year - rather than being dragged out for several more years.
It should be a top priority for Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille to assure that the complex process of expunging the records is expedited - even as Castille deals with the fallout from having at best botched the planning of a new Family Court in Philadelphia.
In addition to expunging the kids' records, judicial leaders need to get moving on 43 reform recommendations from the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice. The panel's report issued in late May calls for an overhaul of the juvenile-justice system to prevent a repeat of the scandal. The proposals include assuring that juvenile defendants have lawyers, and that judges and other stakeholders in the legal community are held more accountable.
It figures that the private jail-payoff scheme would become a staple plotline for television dramas by now. But the many injustices should be remedied before those shows appear in reruns.
Local Commentary: County can take the lead in ensuring juvenile justice
The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre)
Opinion by Gregg Volz
June 30, 2010
The Luzerne County judicial scandal has provided an opportunity to re-examine how Pennsylvania helps its youth and to create the best youth courts in America.
THE Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice report on the Luzerne County judicial scandal revealed a multi-systemic failure. Juvenile offenders – some as young as 12– were taken from their parents and placed in detention facilities for weeks, sometimes months, for extremely minor offenses. To put these youth in juvenile detention for minor transgressions at a cost of several hundred dollars a day for months on end is unconscionable public policy.
The report outlines both a virtual breakdown in all three branches of government and a system plagued by tension between those who wanted the juvenile justice system to punish misconduct and those who wanted it to teach youth how to avoid repeating bad behavior. Also at fault, according to the report, “is the fact that there exists an inaccurate perception about the children who come into the juvenile courts.” While some accounts conjure up images of “juvenile predators” or “gang leaders,” our juvenile courts generally deal with less serious conduct – cases that reflect common immaturities among juveniles.
The commission’s report severely criticizes the zero-tolerance policies in public schools that cause “a less serious range of conduct” to be processed in court, condemning the frequent use of the justice system as a school disciplinarian. In discussing overuse of the courts and detention facilities for minor disciplinary infractions in schools, the report states, “there are alternatives that are much better and effective in ensuring a safe, secure and supportive environment for each child who attends school in Pennsylvania.”
Student-run youth courts are a better alternative because they put a stop to the school-to-prison pipeline. This revolutionary court system effectively uses student panels to screen low-level school disciplinary offenses and filter cases that ought not result in children being expelled from school or entering the stigmatic juvenile justice system. Youth courts are an early intervention, multi-purpose youth development tool that can reduce truancy, improve student citizenship and school climate, and give youth a voice.
Youth courts keep student offenders attached to school, while training students to process school disciplinary infractions without relying on adult participation and without referring cases to juvenile officials. By using creative sentences, or “dispositions,” youth courts teach responsibility and the consequences of rule breaking. Moreover, students who operate youth courts report that it improves their own behavior, increases their interest in school, teaches them needed socialization skills and allows them to help their peers.
In 2006, Chester was a school district from which students were almost as likely to go to prison as attend college. In 2007, we initiated a peer justice youth court. The proceedings are similar to those in juvenile court, but court officials are all high school students. The respondent is given the opportunity to explain his actions to a judge and jury, and the jury issues its verdict.
Sentences are tailored to the offense. A student found destroying property might be asked to spend time with the school’s maintenance crew, or a youth might be ordered to apologize to a teacher. No matter what the sentence, all respondents receive mandatory jury duty as part of their disposition. The lessons – including conflict resolution, problem solving, teamwork and leadership – are invaluable.
The court works because, just as negative peer pressure contributes to bad behavior, positive peer pressure contributes to positive behavior. The court follows restorative justice principles in trying to restore the victim, school, neighborhood, family and offender. Youth court jurors tell the respondent, “We are not trying to punish you; we are trying to help you.”
The Luzerne County judicial scandal has provided an opportunity to re-examine how Pennsylvania helps its youth and to create the best youth courts in America. To do this, it should first appoint a committee of educators and lawyers to analyze and report on the best national youth court practices. It should then enact a statute to govern school-based and juvenile justice-based youth courts, establish a statewide association of youth courts and provide a dedicated funding stream for youth courts.
Skepticism is high, and confidence in our judicial system has been tested. Having personally seen young lives transformed by participation in youth courts, I know that there is a better way to manage juvenile justice.
Though the Interbranch Commission is set to expire today, it is imperative that the General Assembly appoint a neutral, competent entity to oversee the implementation of all its recommendations. Systems resist change. Only oversight from an objective and nonpartisan entity will ensure successful change – then, and only then, will public confidence be restored.
Gregg Volz is a senior fellow with the Philadelphia-based Stoneleigh Foundation, an organization committed to supporting talented practitioners, researchers and policymakers to develop and test new ideas that will improve the well-being and future for young people with the greatest needs. Visit .
Bill gives Pennsylvania DAs options in teen sexting cases
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
By Bob Stiles
June 30, 2010
A bill, approved Tuesday by the state House, would establish different levels of severity for criminal charges that can be filed against teens younger than 18 accused of sexting -- the sending of nude or semi-nude photos via cell phone.
The measure passed in the House, 163-36, and now moves to the Senate.
Rep. Seth Grove, a York County Republican and the primary sponsor of the bill, said yesterday that the goal is to do away with only the felony offense that prosecutors must file if they charge teens for sexting.
"I'm happy we're doing something about it, so kids don't have that felony hanging over their heads," Grove said. "And it sends a message that sexting won't be tolerated in the state. Hopefully, it sends the message: 'Think before you send.' "
The proposed charges -- summary, misdemeanor or felony -- would depend on the circumstances and the number of participants, Grove said.
The measure is a compromise made in the Legislature with Grove's previous bill, which would make sexting a misdemeanor offense and offer educational programs and community service as possible dispositions.
Grove said the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association supports the legislation. Others, including the American Civil Liberties Union, however, said it believes sexting should not result in criminal charges unless the pictures were taken through coercion or by depicting lewd acts.
Last year, six Greensburg Salem High School students were charged under the child-pornography law for sexting.
Although each student originally was accused of a felony, most eventually were ordered in Westmoreland County Juvenile Court to perform community service, and a curfew was imposed. One student was placed on one-year probation because of a previous juvenile record.
Ed Marsico, state District Attorneys Association president and Dauphin County district attorney, said many prosecutors don't want to file a felony charge for sexting; therefore, a change in the law is needed.
"It's my belief (the current law is) too harsh," he said.
Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck, whose office handled the Greensburg Salem cases, said the legislation appears to address the concerns of most district attorneys.
"I suspect that most incidents of sexting are done thoughtlessly and not with the intent to distribute child pornography on the Internet," he said.
Educating students about the harm of sexting, such as the District Attorneys Association's "Let's Talk About Sexting," is key, Peck said.
Andy Hoover, legislative director for the ACLU in Harrisburg, said teens should not be charged for sexting. He added that in most cases, free-speech issues could be involved.
"This is another example of government intruding in our personal lives -- in this case, our kids,' " Hoover said, adding that sexting might be an example of "bad, but not criminal" behavior.
He said the bill might not withstand a court challenge.
Peck, Marsico and Grove said authorities must have the ability to file charges so that teens know that their behavior is not acceptable and, therefore, sexting would be taken seriously.
At least a dozen states are looking to revamp laws because of sexting incidents.
"I have no doubt sexting has happened in every school district in the nation," said Grove, an alumnus of Spring Grove School District, which had a recent sexting incident.
In March, a U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia stopped Wyoming County authorities from filing felony charges against a teenage girl who sent cell-phone photos.
Former District Attorney George Skumanick threatened to charge the girl with a felony offense, unless she agreed to take a diversionary program and write an essay stating what she did and why it was wrong.
The court ruled the district attorney's action violated the teen's free speech and impinged on her parents' rights to direct her upbringing. Two other girls' claims before the court were dropped after the district attorney's office said it no longer planned to charge them.
Juvenile center at heart of scandal no longer used for detention
The Times Tribune (Scranton)
By Dave Janoski and Michael R. Sisak
July 1, 2010
WILKES-BARRE - The privately owned Pittston Twp. juvenile center at the heart of a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme is no longer providing detention services, forcing probation officers to truck young defendants an hour or more for court hearings in Luzerne County, officials said Wednesday.
PA Child Care LLC, spurred by a drastic falloff in placements following the scheme and corruption charges against two judges and a former co-owner, moved the 12 beds it used for detention into a secure treatment unit, a state Department of Public Welfare spokesman said.
The change, which went into effect June 6, has created "logistical" and "transportation" issues for Luzerne County probation officials, who are now housing juveniles at facilities in Lehigh County, about an hour from Wilkes-Barre, and in Tioga County, two-and-a-half hours away.
Court sessions have been moved to later in the day to accommodate the added travel, and the probation department has added a second shift of officers to transport juveniles back to the far-flung facilities, Chief Probation Officer Michael Vecchio said.
"Hopefully something can be done so maybe something closer can be utilized rather than folks having to travel those distances," the juvenile court judge, David W. Lupas, said.
The former judges charged in the corruption scandal, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan, forced the closure of an aging county-owned juvenile facility in 2003 and orchestrated a 20-year, $58 million county lease with the Pittston Twp. center in 2004.
The owner of the center, Gregory Zappala, said new policies in Luzerne County juvenile court enacted since the scandal - including an increased use of home confinement and a move by the state to limit prehearing confinements - drastically reduced detentions, leaving half the beds empty most of the time. Most of the juveniles in detention and treatment were coming from other counties, he said.
The facility's revenue from Luzerne County dropped to $152,731 in 2009 from more than $1 million in 2008, according to county Controller Walter L. Griffith Jr.
Luzerne County leased the 12 detention beds from the opening of the 60-bed facility in 2003 until it agreed to a long-term lease of the entire building in 2004. The county negotiated its way out of the long-term lease following the arrests of the two judges, who were accused of accepting kickbacks from Mr. Zappala's former partner, Robert J. Powell. The county did not renew the 12-bed agreement.
Contact the writers: djanoski@, msisak@
House approves juvenile justice bills
The Times Tribune (Scranton)
By Robert Swift
July 1, 2010
HARRISBURG - A bill to create a $500,000 state fund to provide restitution to victims of juvenile crime in Luzerne County was approved by House lawmakers Wednesday following debate about whether one county is getting special treatment.
The House voted 125-76 for the restitution fund bill for Luzerne County residents who were victims of juvenile crime, but didn't receive any court-ordered restitution due to fallout from the Luzerne County courthouse scandal. The state Supreme Court vacated convictions of juveniles sentenced wrongly by former Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan to a privately run detention facility. When the convictions were vacated, the awards were vacated, too.
Also approved 170-30 was a bill to give the state Office of Victim Advocate authority to advocate for victims of juvenile crime.
"These measures help us balance the complex needs of juvenile offenders with the very real harm suffered by their victims," said House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-116, Hazleton, the bill's sponsor.
Rep. Karen Boback, R-117, Harveys Lake, urged bipartisan support for the measures, saying they are among recommendations by the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice to address issues raised by the scandal. "It is the least that we can do," she said in a floor speech.
Lawmakers defeated a motion by Rep. John Maher, R-40, Upper St. Clair, to declare the restitution bill unconstitutional.
"This bill seeks to classify victims of juvenile crime in two categories, those who live in Luzerne County and everybody else," Mr. Maher said. "Those in the 66 other counties are second-class citizens."
Several Republican lawmakers expressed sympathy for the Luzerne County victims, but said they are concerned money won't be available to help victims of juvenile crime elsewhere. Mr. Eachus said money will be available for statewide needs.
His measure transfers $500,000 from the state Crime Victims Compensation Fund to set up the restitution fund and provides a second $1 million transfer from the same fund to the state Crime Victim Services Fund to help counties give grants to victims.
Both bills now head to the Senate. Mr. Eachus said he is looking for ways to speed passage.
A regional juvie center considered
Petrilla hopes to revive discussions with neighboring counties about establishing joint detention center to save money.
The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre)
By Jennifer Learn-Andes
July 2, 2010
Luzerne County Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla said she’d like to revive discussions with neighboring counties about establishing a regional juvenile detention center in light of PA Child Care’s recent decision to stop offering detention housing at its Pittston Township facility.
However, the cost of a regional center may not make sense because Luzerne County has been averaging only about four to six youths in detention, Petrilla said.
Detention is for youths who must be lodged away from home until they go before a judge for sentencing.
Housing those youths in Lehigh and Tioga counties, though inconvenient, may remain the best option, Petrilla said.
County minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said he supports sending the youth to other counties because it would likely cost less than sharing in construction of a regional facility.
The county had been relying on the Pittston Township facility since former Judge Michael Conahan refused to stop sending youth to the county’s River Street juvenile detention center in 2002, arguing that it was not fit for habitation. The facility had passed state and city inspections, but Conahan tied the commissioners’ hands by returned the facility’s license to the state.
Conahan has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of racketeering related to a $2.8 million kickback scheme involving the construction and placement of children at PA Child Care’s centers in Pittston Township and Western Pennsylvania.
Luzerne County commissioners ended a controversial $58 million, 20-year lease of the Pittston Township center in 2008 because the state Department of Public Welfare reduced reimbursement for the facility, arguing that PA Child Care owners were receiving too much profit.
Since then, the county has been leasing detention beds as needed at the Pittston Township facility.
PA Child Care owner Greg Zappala has been expressing a desire to switch the remaining detention beds to treatment ones since the county stopped leasing the facility, county officials say. The facility sent notice to the county about a week ago announcing that it was focusing fully on juvenile treatment and ending its detention housing, said county Children and Youth Director Frank Castano.
Castano said he supports discussion about a regional detention center because it may be more cost efficient and require less travel for juveniles, county staff and families.
Petrilla and other county officials met with representatives of Lackawanna, Pike, Wayne, Monroe and Susquehanna counties in 2009 because the counties were interested in teaming up to build a regional detention center.
“Then it fizzled out. I’d be in favor of rejuvenating those discussions again,” Petrilla said.
The county’s former detention center remains vacant, though county officials remain interested in possible reuses for the facility.
Task force: Juvenile justice improving
The Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre)
By Michael P. Buffer
July 2, 2010
The Luzerne County Juvenile Justice Victim Task Force has been trying to change "the culture" of juvenile justice in the county since May 2009, two task force officials said Thursday.
James Davis, a mental health specialist for the Luzerne County Mental Health/Mental Retardation Agency, and Michael Zimmerman, executive director of the Family Service Association of Wyoming Valley, talked to The Citizens' Voice editorial board and claimed some accomplishments.
"Word hasn't really gotten out about some of the positive changes," Zimmerman said.
As a result of former judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. being charged in the kids-for-cash scandal, the task force was formed last year. Zimmerman said Carol L. Lavery, the state victim's advocate, helped organize the task force, which consists of more than 40 members.
"It is our hope that because of the damage that's been done, we can put some things together so that we can become a model for other counties," Zimmerman said.
Ciavarella is awaiting trial on charges that he and Conahan received $2.8 million in kickbacks for sending juveniles to for-profit juvenile detention centers. Conahan has agreed to plead guilty.
Davis said "we are slowly moving away from" a zero-tolerance approach toward misconduct in schools.
The Supreme Court last fall overturned every juvenile court sentence from Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008. Ciavarella ignored court rules by failing to fully inform juveniles who appeared before him of their right to legal counsel, the court concluded.
Judge David W. Lupas succeeded Ciavarella as juvenile court judge in 2008. All children who now appear before Lupas are represented by counsel, and Lupas has saved the county more than $1 million by reducing out-of-home placements.
The task force commended Lupas for implementing a "Juvenile Delinquency Roundtable" involving various officials who meet on a regular basis at least monthly. The group consists of Lupas, members of the District Attorney's Office, members of the Public Defender's Office and members of the Juvenile Probation Department.
Hempfield juvenile facility may reopen soon
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
By Rich Cholodofsky
July 2, 2010
Inspectors are set to walk through the renovated Regional Youth Services Center in Hempfield today, which could pave the way for reopening the juvenile detention center next week.
Westmoreland County commissioners on Thursday agreed to pay an additional $103,000 for the renovation project started last year to upgrade and enlarge common spaces and offices and to modernize the living areas for 24 inmates.
Originally set to cost nearly $4.5 million last year, the project cost has increased because of construction issues as well as a decision to add an eight-bed youth shelter.
The most recent cost overruns include an additional $9,000 to install new steel support beams.
Almost immediately after the renovation work started last summer, engineers found structural problems in the 30-year-old building that required the installation of new support beams.
Commissioners last year authorized spending $93,000 to pay for the new steel as part of a $210,000 change order to cover cost overruns.
"You're going to have change orders no matter what you do," said Commissioner Charles Anderson.
Commissioner Ted Kopas said the overruns were reasonable, considering the structural problems found during the early stages of the project. Engineers said that the juvenile detention center had been at risk for a collapse.
"Any time you rip apart a 30-year-old building, you're going to get changes," Kopas said.
County engineer Mel Wohlgemuth said that juvenile probation staff should be able to move back into the building next week if the inspection goes as expected.
Juvenile probation workers were relocated last summer to the county courthouse in Greensburg during the construction.
Wohlgemuth said the youth shelter is expected to open in early August.
Opinion: Meeting duty to victims
The Times-Tribune (Scranton)
July 3, 2010
Pennsylvania's justice system is the responsibility of the state government, even though the Legislature never has met its constitutional obligation to fully fund the courts. That's why, when a person is arrested, the case is captioned "Commonwealth v. ...." All judges are paid by the state regardless of their jurisdictions, and the appellate courts - the final arbiters of all cases originating statewide - operate at the state level.
Yet, when the Legislature recently took up a reasonable measure to cure a grave injustice perpetrated by corrupt judges in Luzerne County, some House members actually argued that Luzerne County was receiving special treatment.
The bill, which passed 125-76, would provide $500,000 for victims of juvenile crime in Luzerne County. Those people otherwise would not receive restitution because the Supreme Court cleared the records of about 5,000 juveniles whose cases were handled by former Judge Mark Ciavarella.
He is charged with racketeering, and former Judge Michael T. Conahan has agreed to plead guilty to similar charges, resulting from their alleged acceptance of $2.8 million in kickbacks from developers of juvenile detention centers.
The $500,000 for juvenile crime victims was recommended by the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, which comprehensively investigated elements of the corruption that were not addressed in the federal criminal charges.
Remarkably, when the bill came up for debate Wednesday, Republican Rep. John Maher of Allegheny County argued against it on the dubious grounds that juvenile crime victims in Luzerne County would receive preferential treatment over victims in other counties.
That only would be true, however, if the other counties also had criminally corrupt, dysfunctional juvenile justice systems that denied justice to juveniles and crime victims alike. A functional court system orders, and sees to the collection of, restitution for crime victims.
Mr. Maher's argument is an attempted denial of the state's responsibility for juvenile justice, and a stark example of the regional parochialism that makes it so difficult for Pennsylvania to live up to its status as a commonwealth.
Righting a wrong: 'Cash for kids' victims need immediate help
The Patriot-News (Harrisburg)
Editorial
July 4, 2010
Closure.
That’s what the Luzerne County families and the youth sent to detention centers in the “cash for kids” scandal want at this point.
Given that the judges accused of sending these youngsters away in exchange for bribes are now facing the legal system themselves and there is a vow from the state Supreme Court to throw out their tainted judgments, one would assume closure was happening.
Unfortunately not.
The slow process to expunge the records of children and teens who found themselves shackled and unfairly sent off to detention centers by the two former judges, Mark Ciavarella Jr. and Michael Conahan, is causing many to still contend with criminal records.
Some are unable to get student loans to go to college or jobs to support themselves.
But what is most troubling is that teens who have found themselves in trouble with the law again are getting tougher sentences because of a prior conviction that should have been wiped away.
The justice system is complex, and many agencies must sign off on each case to have a teen’s record officially expunged.
A Berks County senior judge was asked by the state Supreme Court to investigate the more than 5,000 questionable juvenile cases and oversee the records expungement process.
Because of the volume, the director of Luzerne County probation services told The Philadelphia Inquirer that it would take his office six years to wipe every juvenile’s record clean.
The director added that he recently won a grant that would allow him to hire six more people and expunge all of Ciavarella defendants’ records within a year.
Seriously?
The director of probation in the county with the largest juvenile justice scandal in the country’s history has to look for a grant to get help to speed up this process?
Lest we forget, it was the legal system that battered these youngsters — some as young as 10 and 11— so it is the legal system’s responsibility to fix the problem as quickly as possible.
There is no excuse for allowing young adults, some now with their own children, to struggle to support themselves because of a blemish on their record that stems from nothing more than two judges’ alleged greed.
It also is unfathomable that our state would allow youngsters to sit behind bars longer than they should because of juvenile records that need to be expunged.
The process is not a simple one, we know, and financial resources are not abundant for our commonwealth.
But righting the kind of malfeasance that took place in Luzerne County — and should have been stopped years ago — must be a priority for us as a state.
The court system, including the state Supreme Court, should find a way to speed up the expungement process before more damage can be inflicted on these youngsters.
We shouldn’t allow them to be victims again.
Program to help juveniles
Evening sessions to offer counseling, allow boys to attend school and go home.
The Morning Call (Allentown)
By Brian Callaway
July 5, 2010
Boys who've run afoul of the law in the Lehigh Valley could soon be helped by a program that will keep them out of the region's juvenile detention facilities.
Area officials are getting a $300,000 state grant to help set up an evening program that will offer counseling and other supervision to juvenile offenders, but will allow them to return home at night and to their schools during the day.
Beth Fritz, Lehigh County's chief juvenile probation officer, said the program will work with nonviolent juvenile offenders who don't pose a threat to the community, and who may stand a better chance of becoming law-abiding adults if they aren't incarcerated during their adolescence.
The "evening reporting center" is patterned after alternative programs, including one in Berks County, that aim to reduce recidivism by offering intensive counseling, educational guidance, community service efforts and other programs.
Another bonus: Since the boys in the program will only be under the program's supervision about six hours a day versus the entire 24, the center should help save money.
"I'm hoping that the evening reporting center will assist in reducing the cost for detention and placement," Fritz said, "but more importantly will provide effective interventions and help reduce the risk of the youths re-offending."
She said the new program will focus on juveniles who've violated the terms of their probation, for instance, by missing mandated curfews or skipping school.
"Some of our youths are not violent, they're not severely delinquent, but they violate probation repeatedly … and they need to be held accountable," she said.
That doesn't have to mean confinement, though.
An official who oversees Berks County's alternative juvenile probation program was not available for comment Friday, but Fritz said various studies have pointed to the potential benefits of allowing certain juvenile offenders to remain outside traditional detention centers.
For instance, a 2005 report from the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, said more than 50 percent of incarcerated juveniles are re-arrested within a year or two of their release.
"The time a youth spends in secure detention or confinement is not just time away from negative factors that may have influenced his or her behavior," the report said. "Detaining or confining youth may also widen the gulf between the youth and positive influences such as family and school."
Fritz said officials hope to finalize where the new evening reporting program will be held this month, and it could begin operating in August.
The program will be based in Lehigh County, she said, but it will also be open to juveniles from Northampton County.
The program will be relatively small at first, serving about a dozen boys, but could be expanded, Fritz said.
For comparison's sake, she said, Lehigh County housed more than 500 youths in its juvenile detention facility last year.
Girls who have been found delinquent make up a relatively small percentage of the detained youths, Fritz said, which is why the new program is geared toward boys.
With the state budget done: now what? There's a growing list...
The Patriot-News (Harrisburg)
Editorial
July 7, 2010
Pennsylvania has a budget — imperfect, but at least done nearly on time this year.
Now what?
In one scenario, House and Senate members slack off until Election Day. Hearings might be held but no more substantial legislation gets through. It’s the type of procrastination we don’t need.
But it’s another scenario we do need — one where elected officials return to their desks in Harrisburg to at least tackle these immediate issues, if not more, before November.
Marcellus Shale — The top of every legislator’s “to do” list should be Marcellus Shale. Republicans tentatively agreed to a Marcellus Shale tax as part of the compromise budget, but until it’s on paper and up for a vote, no one should rest easy.
The Patriot-News Editorial Board has written at length about the reasons for the tax.
It seems most legislators are finally on board.
There is plenty of room for compromise on the details. As we have noted in the past, a tax in the range of West Virginia’s 5 percent would make the state competitive compared with other parts of the country.
Another option is to follow the Texas model and have a high tax (upward of 7 percent), but offer a discount in the first year or so of a well’s production.
The bottom line is that putting this issue off past October would be a huge loss — financially and otherwise — to Pennsylvania. Republicans and Democrats must keep their word on getting this part of the deal done before Election Day.
Pipelines — As important as the severance tax is, it’s not the only burning Marcellus Shale issue.
As drilling continues to expand in the state at a dizzying pace, pipelines to transport the gas are being built rapidly. At the moment, no one in Pennsylvania is overseeing them. There are federal regulations on the books, but no agency in Pennsylvania is designated specifically to enforce those laws.
The solution is simple: Give authority to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to oversee pipelines. It’s how every other gas-drilling state does it, except us and Alaska.
All it takes is a simple legislative vote.
Juvenile justice — putting a conclusive end to the tragedy in Luzerne County. This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue.
Everyone in the state was outraged to learn what was going on for years in the juvenile justice system in Luzerne County. Youths were being sentenced to detention centers for minor misdemeanors. Two judges were getting financial kickbacks from the private facilities where the youngsters were being sent. The scandal was dubbed “cash for kids” and made international headlines.
The perpetrators have been called out and a commission has spent the last year investigating how the system failed so profoundly. The commission has now made recommendations on what needs to be changed.
It’s time for the Legislature to act on those recommendations and put this awful time to rest in our state’s judicial history.
Using cell phones while driving. The issue has come up time and again in the last two years. It has been vetted and approved in various iterations by various committees.
Let’s answer the call.
At a minimum, the state should ban texting while driving. It’s driver’s education 101 not to have your eyes off the road typing something when you should be driving.
Even better, Pennsylvania should join the majority of other states in banning hand-held cell phones outright. Cities such as Philadelphia and Harrisburg have passed their own bans in an attempt to send a message to the Legislature that they want action.
Transportation — The governor has called a special session on transportation to develop new ways to fund construction and maintenance of our vast system of roads and bridges.
The House Transportation Committee traveled statewide holding meetings on the issue. In May, the state Transportation Advisory Committee estimated an additional $3.5 billion a year is needed to meet all immediate transportation infrastructure needs.
This issue can’t wait.
While discussing revenue-raising options is unfortunately going to be off the table in an election year, the Legislature could start making changes by, for example, enabling the state to create public-private partnerships so the private sector could work with the government to rebuild our infrastructure.
These issues outlined are the “low-hanging fruit” that the Legislature has heard ample testimony on in the last two years and looked at from just about every angle.
What looms beyond Election Day are several much-harder decisions on items such as the state’s bankrupt unemployment fund, our overburdened prison system, state pensions, privatizing our state liquor store system and how we are going to balance next year’s state budget, projected to have a $4 or $5 billion deficit.
Let’s at least get some of the easier matters out of the way now.
The future looks hard enough without the added stress of further procrastination.
Skrep, Vonderheid named in juvie suit
Ex-county commissioners, Guesto, former judges among defendants in new complaint.
The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre)
By Terrie Morgan-Besecker
July 8, 2010
SCRANTON – Former Luzerne County judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella and other persons implicated in the kids-for-cash scheme have been named as defendants in another federal class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of juveniles who allege they were wrongly incarcerated.
The suit, filed Wednesday by attorney Arnold Levin of Philadelphia, contains similar allegations to other suits, which generally contend that Ciavarella and Conahan conspired with attorney Robert Powell, who once co-owned the PA and Western PA Child Care juvenile detention centers, and others to wrongly incarcerate youths in order to benefit themselves financially.
It differs in that it alleges several former county officials, including former commissioners Greg Skrepenak and Todd Vonderheid and former chief manager Sam Guesto, played an active role in the alleged conspiracy.
The suit was filed on behalf of Angela Rimmer Belanger, Joseph Rimmer, and Kelly and Zane Farmer, all of Luzerne County. It alleges the defendants violated the civil rights of Zane Farmer and Joseph Rimmer, who were juveniles incarcerated by Ciavarella in 2004 and 2003, respectively.
The complaint joins four other lawsuits that are currently pending relating to the juvenile justice scandal. It names as defendants Skrepenak, Vonderheid and Guesto, along with Ciavarella, Conahan, former probation official Sandra Brulo and real estate developer Robert Mericle, who built the centers for Powell.
Also named as defendants are Luzerne County, the county’s juvenile probation department, Mericle Construction, PA and Western PA Child Care and Mid-Atlantic Youth Services.
Conahan and Ciavarella were indicted by a grand jury in September on charges of bribery, extortion, wire fraud and numerous other offenses. Federal prosecutors say they improperly accepted more than $2.8 million from Powell and Mericle in exchange for judicial rulings that benefited the two centers.
The lawsuit alleges Guesto, Skrepenak and Vonderheid either participated in the alleged illegal activity of the ex-judges or, at the very least, knew something was improper but did nothing to address the situation.
Regarding Skrepenak and Vonderheid, the suit alleges the former commissioners aided the scheme in several ways, including their decision in 2004 to enter into a “sweetheart deal” to lease the PA Child Care Center for $58 million.
“This vote was held subsequent to Powell and Mericle agreeing to pay another $1 million to judges Conahan and Ciavarella to guarantee that children would continue to be sent to PA Child Care facilities,” the suit says.
Contacted Wednesday, Vonderheid, now president of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, said he had not seen the suit but was confident he would be dismissed as a defendant. He declined further comment. Peter Moses, attorney for Skrepenak, said he could not comment because he had not seen the suit. The suit also takes aim at Guesto, alleging that he was “well aware” of the scheme to bribe Conahan and Ciavarella given that he oversaw the “exorbitant” payments to PA Child Care.
The complaint further alleges he repeatedly stonewalled any investigation into the county’s contract with the facility.
The suit notes several other controversial issues that have involved Guesto, including the debit card scandal from 2004, and alleges he is currently under investigation by the U.S. government for allegedly participating in a “culture of corruption and bribery.” Guesto could not be reached for comment. In an e-mail response, Guesto’s attorney, William Shehwen, said as far as his client is concerned, the suit is "more a fishing expedition than a meritorious legal action."
Class action suit claims former commissioners, others helped judges in kids-for-cash scheme
The Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre)
By Michael R. Sisak
July 9, 2010
The latest lawsuit arising from the Luzerne County kids-for-cash scandal accuses former commissioners Greg Skrepenak and Todd Vonderheid and other officials of aiding and abetting two judges who schemed to ship thousands of juveniles to a pair of for-profit detention centers.
Skrepenak, Vonderheid and the other officials were part of "a culture of corruption and graft that permeated all levels of county management" and enabled former Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan to operate with unilateral force, according to the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court.
After their election in 2004, Skrepenak and Vonderheid voted for a $58 million, 20-year lease with the Pa. Child Care facility in Pittston Township. They allowed Ciavarella and Conahan to have direct control over the court's budgeting, personnel and contract decisions, the lawsuit said.
At the same time, according to federal prosecutors, Ciavarella and Conahan were pocketing $2.8 million in kickbacks from the former co-owner of the center, attorney Robert J. Powell, and its developer, Robert K. Mericle.
"Skrepenak and Vonderheid were allied both politically and socially with Judges Conahan and Ciavarella," the lawsuit said. They either knew of the judges' illegal conduct "and did nothing to address it," or "actively worked to facilitate it."
Another official named in the lawsuit, former County Manager/Chief Clerk Sam Guesto oversaw the "exorbitant payments" to the facility including some issued on an "emergency" basis, making him "well aware" of the scheme, the lawsuit said.
"Guesto repeatedly stonewalled any investigation into the county's contract with Pa. Child Care," refusing to provide a copy of a state audit of the county's dealings with the facility to county commissioners and blocking an internal investigation by former County Controller Steve Flood, the lawsuit said.
The class-action lawsuit, one of a half-dozen lawsuits filed since federal prosecutors charged Conahan and Ciavarella in January 2009, could include as many as 4,000 plaintiffs - at least 1,500 juveniles sentenced by Ciavarella and at least 2,500 of their parents.
Vonderheid said he could not comment on pending litigation. County Solicitor Vito DeLuca said he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment. Skrepenak's attorney, Pete Moses, did not return a telephone message. A telephone number for Guesto was said to be temporarily out of service.
Ciavarella and Conahan, who were also named as defendants in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment. Attorneys for the other defendants, including Powell, Mericle and companies associated with the operation of the detention centers, could not be reached.
Top Stories - National
'Redirection' effort helps keep youths out of prison later
Florida Times-Union
By Deirdre Conner
June 26, 2010
By the time her daughter was arrested, Letitia Alexander was overwhelmed.
Her daughter, a high school freshman, was staying out late, skipping school, getting in fights. When she was charged with disorderly conduct and vandalism, she could have been sent to a residential commitment center run by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.
Instead, Alexander's daughter was enrolled in a 5-year-old program that is showing impressive results locally and statewide.
Called "redirection," it consists mostly of family therapy and focuses on parents - an emphasis that's nearly impossible to attain when youth are locked up at residential commitment centers. It does not accept youth who have committed violent or first-degree felonies.
Redirection has saved the state $51 million and youth that go through it are less likely to re-offend than those who go to commitment centers, according to a recent report from the Legislature's Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. Yet the program receives just a fraction of the funding spent on incarceration of youth at commitment centers - and spending on it is unlikely to increase any time soon.
'I learned to speak up'
Alexander was at first a little nervous about the idea of a therapist from the Henry and Rilla White Foundation coming to her home three times a week. Before long, though, she found herself looking forward to the visits and even calling her therapist between visits.
She found that she began to change - as did her daughter. By the end of the school year, her daughter began calling her mother, caseworker or even the school principal when she ran into trouble. For her part, Alexander made an effort to show up at the school.
"It helped me, because when she used to get in trouble I used to agree with everything they said," Alexander said. "Now, I get more involved, I learned to speak up."
Alexander's daughter was initially against the idea of the program; now she will call her therapist on her own for advice when a problem arises.
"That made me look at her in a different way," Alexander said.
About 95 percent of the work is focused on parents, said Matthew Birt, program director for the White Foundation. And the therapists travel to their home on evenings or weekends so that work hours and transportation are not barriers.
"What we've found with this model is, if we can get the parents to buy into it and change, we can get better outcomes and keep kids from going even further into the system," he said.
Jolt to the system
Sometimes that comes as a shock to parents, said Nicole Janer, project manager for Evidence Based Associates, the private contractor that oversees the entire redirection program for the Department of Juvenile Justice.
"Families typically ... have heard that the kid needs to change. The first piece we have to do is help them understand they are going to be the most powerful piece in changing their kids' behavior," she said.
Statewide, Janer said, the youth coming in the redirection program have already been arrested on average a dozen times and found guilty about five times. It's evidence, she said, that kids with chronic problems need intensive intervention.
If they are simply sent to residential programs and returned to the same environment, they are likely to end up right back in the system, she said. Making changes at home gives them a better chance.
For now, federal stimulus money has reopened a new Jacksonville location of the redirection program, run by Camelot Community Care. But the location's funding will run out in January; it would need state funds to continue, and that's up to the Legislature, which doesn't meet until next spring.
And a funding increase is anything but certain.
The Department of Juvenile Justice already lost about $16 million in funding in the most recent budget, and predictions for the upcoming fiscal year are even more dire. In a response to the report recommending expansion of the program, Secretary Frank Peterman said the department would "vigorously" pursue ways to expand it. But increased funding seems unlikely.
"With the way the budget is these days, I don't see anything expanding," said Frank Penela, a spokesman for the department. He said department leadership would look to the Legislature next year.
Staying out of prison
If lawmakers look to their research arm, they'll find strong evidence for expanding the program.
The program policy study compared youth in the redirection program with youth committed to residential programs who had similar criminal histories and recidivism risks. Redirection youth and similar committed youth do about the same on one measure: the likelihood they will be subsequently locked up in a residential program. The chances are about one in three for both.
But in most every other measure, redirection youth did better. They were significantly less likely to be rearrested, to be found guilty of a felony or to be sent to adult prison.
So then why does the state spend $11.5 million on redirection programs but about $242 million overall on secure and non-secure residential corrections?
At least part of the reason is that children, especially those who tend to live in poverty, have few advocates, said Michael Hallett, director of the Center for Criminal Justice Policy Research at the University of North Florida.
Troubled youth "are not a constituency that can command resources," he said, "and they rely upon professionals in the nonprofit arena and elsewhere who themselves are in great crisis."
Plus, Hallett said, initiatives that divert offenders can sometimes lead to charges of leaders being "soft on crime."
Hallett applauded the redirection program but said more work is needed to get such services in place before youth are arrested.
"The challenge we face in Duval County is the majority of juvenile delinquents who commit a violent crime have as their first a arrest a violent crime," Hallett said. "We need to invest more deeply in prevention and intervention programs for juveniles."
Letitia Alexander said the services provided would have helped her family earlier. Mostly, though, she's ecstatic that her daughter has changed so dramatically in the last few months. As school ended, Alexander got another surprise: She learned her daughter had pulled up her grades and was being promoted to 10th grade.
Youth prosecutions targeted
Area agencies will pool their efforts to reduce the number of minorities in the juvenile justice system.
Tulsa World (OK)
By GINNIE GRAHAM, World Staff Writer
June 28, 2010
Reducing the number of minority youths in the juvenile justice system is the goal of a community initiative under way after the Community Service Council received a federal grant last year.
A memorandum of understanding among several agencies dedicated to the Tulsa County Disproportionate Minority Contact Reduction Initiative will be signed at 10 a.m. Monday.
The Community Service Council received a $75,000 grant last year from the Office of Juvenile Affairs' State Advisory Group on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to launch a long-term project to reduce the number of minority youths who land in the juvenile justice system.
The project's coordinator, Corinne Fiagome, said the Community Service Council would serve as the hub for gathering data and organizing the plan.
"We are going to bring together what is already happening and coordinate new initiatives," she said.
A 1988 report to Congress by the Coalition for Juvenile Justice brought national attention to the issue of disproportionate representation of minority youths in juvenile justice systems.
In response, Congress started making requirements for states to address the problem.
Under the 2002 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, any state that fails to address the over-representation of minorities in its juvenile justice system may lose 20 percent of its formula grant allocation from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention the following year.
"It has taken different forms and in different states, but we used to focus only on confinement," Fiagome said. "Now, the focus is on all entry points, including arrest and probation, and not just detention. There are nine different points of contact and not just confinement.
"Also, previous years had a national and state focus. Now, the prevailing belief is that things like this work best when there is local involvement."
Tulsa and Oklahoma City are the only cities in Oklahoma to receive the federal grant. Communities have the flexibility to tailor the programs to the city's specific needs.
Fiagome said the goal is to ensure fair and equal treatment for all youths, regardless of race or ethnicity. The effort will address the bigger issue of juvenile delinquency, while examining the disproportionate minority representation, she said.
"We're able to get on the front end of this as it is just now growing into a local initiative," Fiagome said.
Statistics have been gathered since September and analysis has begun, she said.
Suggestions regarding causes for the over-representation and possible solutions are being sought from community groups and youths.
The initiative will take place in increments as partner agencies take ownership of segments of the plan.
Plans are for some programs to start in the fall, Fiagome said.
"We've not determined yet what the interventions will be," she said. "We don't have to have one plan here. It will be a multipronged approach."
Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris, Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Faerber and Tulsa County Juvenile Bureau Director Brent Wolfe will speak on the issue Monday.
On hand will be representatives from various Tulsa County agencies and law enforcement groups as well as the Office of Juvenile Affairs, Community Intervention Center, the State Advisory Group on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the University of Oklahoma.
Coalition to target racial disparity in juvenile justice system
The goal is to find and eliminate causes of racial disparity in the youth offender system.
Tulsa World (OK)
By GINNIE GRAHAM
June 29, 2010
Minority youths are over-represented in five of the nine points of contact in the juvenile justice system, data from the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs show.
A Tulsa County initiative to address the disparity will use a federal grant to examine the causes and craft a plan of interventions.
"It is the right thing to do and it is the fair thing to do," Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris said. "All people entering the criminal justice system should enter on a race-neutral, fairness doctrine under the U.S. Constitution."
Eighteen representatives from Tulsa County agencies signed an agreement Monday to work as a group to examine data for reasons for the racial disparity, design plans to address the causes and put the plans into action.
"It's not being soft on crime," Harris said. "It means holding juveniles accountable under the schemes of our laws. We have to be courageous enough to look at the data."
A steering committee of about 26 agency and youth representatives reviewed state statistics since September to look for minority over-representation.
It found five areas of disproportionate representation: juvenile arrests, referrals to juvenile court, cases diverted, juveniles housed in secure detention during court proceedings and cases resulting in confinement to residential or correctional institutions.
"We do have significant minority involvement with our system," said Brent Wolfe, director of the Tulsa County Juvenile Bureau. "It's important we look at the issues and ask why that is happening."
An OJA report from last year says the number of black youths confined in secured institutions is five times their share of the state's youth population.
Black youths make up about 50 percent of the population in OJA institutions but represent just 10 percent of Oklahoma's youth population, the report states. White youths, who make up 63 percent of the state's juvenile population, fill about 32 percent of OJA's secured detention slots.
Hispanics, who total about 10 percent of the youth population, make up about 0.4 percent of OJA institutions, and American Indians, who make up 10 percent of Oklahoma's youth, represent about 8 percent of the inmates in OJA facilities, the report states.
Alice Blue, a senior planner with the Community Service Council, said: "This is not a Tulsa issue, this is not an Oklahoma issue, this is our part of a national issue. We want fair and equal treatment for all youth entering the juvenile justice system."
Corrine Fiagome, who will coordinate the initiative, said its agency representatives would bring specific data from their organizations to create a bigger picture of juvenile justice statistics.
"As we get more data, we will be able to hone in more on the causes of the disproportionate minority contact," she said. "Our effort will be guided by data. The preliminary data showing disparities is not reflective of intent or treatment. We have not yet determined the exact causes in Tulsa County."
Officials gathered for the signing spoke of the initiative addressing bigger societal problems such as poverty, drug abuse, family relationships, gang involvement and education.
The OJA report found that 59 percent of its incarcerated youths have parents and family members with a chronic history of criminal offenses, 49 percent have inadequate parental supervision, 26 percent experienced significant family trauma or parents with marital conflicts, 25 percent had parents and family members with drug- and alcohol-abuse problems, and 13 percent had parents who are incarcerated.
By focusing on the racial disparity, officials expect improved outcomes for all juveniles at risk of criminal behavior.
"It is our responsibility to support the positive development of youth in our community, and we are also totally dedicated to community safety," Wolfe said. "They go together. We do not do this alone. Every single person and institution in the city, county and state have a part of people coming into our system."
He said part of the initiative will be prevention and early interventions, starting in childhood.
"Our hope is that they don't ever come into our system," he said. "That is what the community has the responsibility and charge to do together."
Keep state's juvenile justice system strong
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Opinion by Mary Bell, Mike Senn and Marty Beil
June 29, 2010
No obstacle is greater than reaching and teaching children who are incarcerated at a young age.
Students sentenced to juvenile correctional schools often come from challenging home environments, and many have undiagnosed medical, emotional or learning disabilities. The teachers and youth counselors who work with them are professionals who go the extra mile to make a connection that opens the door to learning.
The best way to turn the tide for young people who have started down a troubled road is to educate them. It's our chance to reach them, make communities safer and stop a lifetime of expenses involved with repeat offenders.
As teachers and youth counselors, we have concerns about the harm that may be done to our successful juvenile correctional schools if measures such as closing facilities are considered by the state. Wisconsin must be sure we're not dismantling something that works, in the hopes of realizing some short-term savings.
Wisconsin gets solid results when it comes to turning around young offenders. Our recidivism rate is one of the lowest in the nation, and students make leaps and bounds in learning when they are placed in safe environments with teachers and youth counselors who help them learn how to be successful students and responsible citizens.
It's due to strong academic leadership, small class sizes, the ability to separate different types of offenders to minimize conflict and efforts to facilitate support from families.
It is critical that investments in correctional education continue, so students can continue on the path to becoming productive, contributing members of their communities. We must remember these safe harbors are a last resort for our state's most troubled students.
Ethan Allen, in the southeastern part of the state, and Lincoln Hills, in northern Wisconsin, are the only schools of their kind for boys. They each have unique strengths when it comes to learning and remediation. To dismantle a nationally respected system would be a step in the wrong direction.
The people who work with the youth in these facilities stand ready to identify ways to continually improve and to ensure these institutions are fiscally responsible. But we ask that the state look to the value these schools provide and the difference they make.
It's a difference that improves not only the future for young offenders but also the future of our communities, which will be safer, and our state, which saves money tomorrow for each dollar spent today. That's a wise investment.
Any action in the name of cost-savings to the current system should be designed so it will do no harm to the good work and positive outcomes that are currently realized.
Mary Bell is a teacher from Wisconsin Rapids and president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council. Mike Senn, president of Council #1, WEAC, taught at Lincoln Hills for 18 years and is a teacher at Redgranite Correctional Institution. Marty Beil is executive director of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24.
The wrong solution for troubled youth
Building a $100 million juvenile jail would produce worse outcomes at higher cost
The Baltimore Sun (MD)
June 29, 2010
Despite significant protests, Maryland appears to be moving full steam ahead with a project to construct a new $100 million jail to house youth offenders who are being tried as adults, with a bid conference on the project scheduled for Wednesday. Gov. Martin O'Malley and other leaders are addressing the right problem — the current practice of housing youth offenders in Baltimore's adult detention center — but building a new youth jail is the wrong solution.
Safety for youth at the city detention center is a serious issue. According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, youth under 18 are at heightened risk of physical and sexual assault in adult jails. Youth are also much more likely to commit suicide in an adult jail than in a juvenile detention facility. Because of these risks, the Justice Department's memorandum of understanding with the state of Maryland requires that youth should be separated from adult inmates.
Moreover, states are moving away from the heinous practice of placing youth in adult jails. Next week a new law goes into effect in Virginia that removes youth from adult jails altogether. And legislation pending in Congress, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization Act (S. 678) approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee with the support of Maryland's Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, would also require the removal of youth from adult jails across the country.
As someone who has visited Baltimore City's detention center and considers it to be one of the worst places to house youth, I believe Governor O'Malley is right to want to improve safety for youth and separate them from adult inmates.
However the governor's plan, proposed by the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and supported by the Department of Juvenile Services, is seriously flawed. The plan proposes that Maryland "build" its way out of the federal memorandum of understanding by constructing this new $100 million youth jail.
The state budget crisis is reason enough to scrap the plan. The idea for the youth jail was hatched five years ago, when the state was flush with money. Now the state is laying off workers and scrapping programs. Fiscal prudence demands another approach.
The youth at the Baltimore City Detention Center have all been charged as adults.
However, most of them are routinely returned to the juvenile justice system. This fact alone should give the governor pause. Why are these children in the adult criminal justice system in the first place? Additionally, research undertaken by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention shows that sending youth to adult criminal court increases the likelihood that youth will reoffend. A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows similar results. If sending youths to the adult criminal justice system produces worse outcomes, why are we spending $100 million to facilitate the practice?
Finally, this is the opportunity for the juvenile justice system in Maryland to re-examine and substantially change its policies and practices that lead to youth being detained unnecessarily and inappropriately in Maryland's juvenile detention facilities. Alternatives to detention can much better serve the purpose of rehabilitation of young offenders at lower cost.
Governor O'Malley has the right instincts to want to protect young people in the justice system and to promote better public safety outcomes in the community. However, He is getting some bad advice. Governor O'Malley should do what the research shows works to reduce juvenile crime and what fiscal responsibility and stewardship warrants: Scrap this flawed plan to build a new $100 million youth jail and instead reinvest these funds in effective alternatives that are proven to work.
Liz Ryan is the president and CEO of the Washington-based Campaign for Youth Justice. Her e-mail is lryan@.
New Walsh Act Rules Allow States to Shield Juveniles...Sort Of
Youth Today
June 29, 2010
The Justice Department proposed new rules this summer that would make it optional for states to include most juvenile sex offenders on a public database. The change was meant to assuage the concerns of some states’ officials about subjecting young offenders to being named on a public list. Juvenile justice advocates say they find the new proposal confusing, so JJ Today went looking for some answers.
“It appears the supplemental guides are contradicting the regular ones,” said Nicole Pittman, a juvenile justice analyst for the Defender Association of Philadelphia, who opposes the inclusion of juveniles on the database. “It’s getting away from the uniformity that Walsh was intending to bring.”
It is just the latest chapter in the messy saga of the Walsh Act and its centerpiece, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). The act was signed into law four years ago and originally was to take effect in 2009, but right now only three states are in compliance with Justice Department regulations. The delays arise from fiscal and ethical concerns about inclusion of some or all juvenile sex offenders on public sex offender registries and the monitoring that goes along with registration.
Walsh and SORNA: A primer
SORNA established a national sex offender database of juveniles and adults that would be compiled from databases maintained by the states.
States were required to pass their own legislation by July of 2009 that met SORNA’s guidelines about who had to be included on the national database; for juveniles, that includes any crime committed by a youth 14 or older that involves aggravated sexual assault. States were also advised they could include more sex offenders if they chose, including those convicted of lesser offenses than those mandated in the guidelines.
Failure to pass complying legislation would result in a 10 percent cut to a state’s Justice Assistance Grants.
From the beginning, some juvenile justice advocates were concerned that the new regulations would keep juveniles on public registries for decades and thus jeopardize their ability to move with their families, get into college or land a job.
Last week, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to add buying a house to that list: the Federal Housing Authority Reform Act of 2010 passed by the House this month included an amendment by Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas) that prohibits FHA from giving mortgages to anyone who has been convicted of a sex offense with a minor.
All of these regulations have been put in place despite research that shows juvenile sex offenders are far less likely than adults to commit a second sex offense.
It has been 1,434 days since the Walsh Act was signed into law, and just Ohio, Delaware and Florida are officially in compliance with the act’s SORNA regulations.
Other states have passed laws in efforts to put them in line with Walsh, and are awaiting determinations by Justice’s Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART) office.
The original deadline for compliance was July of 2009, which no state met, so Attorney General Eric Holder extended the deadline by a year. Only Ohio had gained compliance as summer began; Holder allowed states to apply for extensions that would give them until July of 2011.
As of today, 35 states and the District have received an extension, according to the SMART office.
What’s the holdup?
Why have so many states been slow to embrace the spirit of such a politically popular piece of legislation? Two factors are the costs to comply and the inclusion of juvenile delinquents.
Most juvenile advocates want to see youth shielded entirely from SORNA because of their amenability to change and the damning effect of a sex offender record on them.
Some states agree. Tennessee’s legislature has gone back and forth on which juveniles to include on its registry. Ohio’s submission for compliance was originally rejected by the Bush administration, in part because it did not include enough of the juvenile sex offender population. Obama’s Justice department looked at the same submission and deemed Ohio compliant in the fall of 2009 (click here for more details).
But the biggest factor keeping states from complying with Walsh is money. State budgets are almost universally brutal right now, and the pressure is on legislators to rein in costs wherever possible.
That has rendered federal carrots and sticks aimed at shaping youth policy less effective.
The penalty for not complying with Walsh – a 10 percent cut to a state’s Justice Assistance Grants – is likely to be significantly lower than the cost of doing what the law asks of states, according to research by the advocacy organization Justice Policy Institute (JPI). JPI wants states to ignore compliance requirements completely, and sent its report on the cost breakdown to state policy makers.
The money factor is also tied to the fact the regulations deal with juveniles. Adding anyone to the SORNA registry commits a state to a very long monitoring period for that individual; the most serious offenders (Tier III) are on it for life, and the minimum length of time for Tier I offender is 15 years. Juvenile sex offenders are the most expensive additions because of their age. And with research indicating that only between 5 percent and 14 percent of juvenile sex offenders recidivate, monitoring these individuals is often the least efficient use of money and enforcement officials’ time.
Iowa already is feeling the financial sting of sex offender monitoring, reports Des Moines Register reporter Lee Hood. Iowa overhauled its sex offender laws in 2006, before the Walsh Act passed, and the changes removed the juvenile court’s discretionary power to keep juvenile offenders off the state registry. Iowa is one of the 35 states with a compliance extension.
New rules
Justice proposed eight supplemental guidelines in the Federal Register on May 14. One allows states the option to “exempt from public Web site disclosure information concerning sex offenders required to register on the basis of juvenile delinquency adjudications.”
Should a state accept the exemption, juvenile sex offenders would appear on a database that only law enforcement could view, which is the system currently used by Michigan and other states. Everything else would be the same: the juveniles would have to register and update information, and would be monitored by law enforcement.
“On its face, if confidentiality can be protected, it’s better [that] it’s behind the wall,” said JPI President Tracy Velasquez. “The question is, can it stay confidential? In some small jurisdictions, where law enforcement has it, sometimes everyone has it.”
Preventing juveniles from appearing on public registries can protect them during the formative years, but what about collateral consequences? Would juveniles’ names appear on a public registry suddenly on their 18th birthday? Could employers, colleges or FHA loan officers find out about their offense through a background check, even if the name never appeared on a public registry?
The Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs, which houses the SMART office, provided some answers.
Would the state have to make the juvenile sex offender's name and information public once he/she turned 18 and was an adult?
A: No, unless there was a subsequent offense committed.
If a state opted to keep the juvenile's name private, would a criminal background check still identify the offense even though the person was not on a public registry?
A: Maybe. The availability of juvenile sex offense records would be jurisdiction specific, so it would depend on whether (and to what extent) the state in question seals juvenile records.
You can read the entire supplement guidelines proposal here. The public can submit comments to the SMART office until July 13.
Female Detention Center to Open in Southeast
AFRO (Washington, DC)
By Dorothy Rowley
June 30, 2010
For years, because it lacked adequate housing for juvenile offenders, the District resorted to placing them in facilities outside the city; most times, in other states as far as 300 miles away. This was particularly true for females. Last year for instance, of the more than 300 youths from the District that were detained in facilities in other states, some 25 were females.
Now, Howard University has announced a partnership with the District that, at the onset, will enable at least six delinquent females, ages 15 to 20, to serve out their court-ordered sentences at the new Lillian D. Worthington Residential facility located in Southeast Washington.
The renovated 5,500-square-foot center, slated for opening in July, is a long-term facility and will be operated in conjunction with the privately owned, District-based Metropolitan Educational Solutions.
“This is a small community-based endeavor,” said Linda Harlee-Harper, program manager with the city’s Department of Youth Rehabilitative Services.
She said wherever the participating girls go beyond the walls of the two-story, placid-looking brick structure located on the 5200 block of Astor Place, they will be accompanied by staff.
“So, it’s not a locked facility but a staff-secure facility,” Harlee-Harper said, adding that for too long, the District has neglected its young troubled females.
She said in-house education is one of the program’s main objectives and that’s where Howard enters, providing university-based exposure.
“In all programs across the board – from mental health services to gender-specific programs in schools – I think the city could do a better job,” Harlee Harper said. “This is a good first step in addressing the needs of our young ladies.”
Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry concurred. Barry, who has often asserted the need for more services geared to youth, said the detention center offers the kind of environment where detainees can more closely interact with staff during their rehabilitation and also achieve educational goals.
“The problem is that a lot of people don’t want detention centers in their backyards,” Barry said. He added, however, that such was the case with the Worthington Center and that officials had to stand firm on their decision to locate it where it is.
“There have been [similar] programs put in people’s communities that they opposed, but once they were up and running, nobody wanted them to leave,” Barry said, adding that he felt the community would likewise embrace Worthington.
Peaceaholics cofounder Ron Moten also said he applauded the decision to keep the girls in the District.
“They shouldn’t have wasted taxpayer money in the first place, housing females around the country where they were disconnected from their families,” Moten said.
“But having the program right here in the District where the proper people can oversee it, amongst the village we once had, is the answer.”
According to Tracy Velazquez, executive director of the District-based think tank Justice Policy Institute, the new facility is a good step because youthful offenders tend to do better with rehabilitation when they’re closer to their families.
“It’s so hard for families to go visit if a girl is in Pennsylvania or West Virginia,” Velazquez said. “So this is really going to be a really positive step.”
Especially since Worthington is in line with best practices, she added. “It’s small so that it can cater to a dozen girls at the most and because of its size, it would feel just like a home.”
Meanwhile, detention officials in nearby Laurel, Md., and Mayor Adrian Fenty were embarrassed by a riot-like situation that occurred two weeks ago at the New
Beginnings juvenile detention.
In that incident, a detainee fled the brand new $46 million state-of-the-art facility for juvenile boys center by scaling a fence. He was later captured in Northeast Washington.
Since the escape in which some 70 detainees engaged the staff in a melee after refusing to enter their electronically controlled sleeping quarters, inmate movement at the facility has been more heavily restricted.
The escape occurred just one day after its opening in May and shed light on some foibles in the system—largely because the facility had been promoted as the one place in the area most suited to rehabilitate its detainees.
In a statement released by the American Federation of Government Employees, spokesman Dwight Bowman said the incident equated to another black mark on the city’s DYRS.
“Whether inside the New Beginnings facility or supervising committed youth who reside in the community, the Fenty administration has proven itself to be incapable of managing the youthful offender population,” Bowman said. “The agency is under-resourced, jeopardizing the safety of the employees, the committed youth and the general public.”
Walgreens suspect to juvenile court
Omaha World-Herald (NE)
By Jason Kuiper
July 1, 2010
A judge gave a second chance Wednesday to a 16-year-old boy involved in a robbery attempt at a Walgreens store in which a customer shot one would-be robber to death.
Douglas County District Judge Marlon Polk ruled that JauVier Perkins, 16, will now have his case heard in juvenile court rather than adult court.
Perkins had already been ordered to stand trial on charges of attempted robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and weapon use.
A detention hearing is expected in the next few days after Polk granted the defense's motion to transfer the case. Perkins is being held at the Douglas County Youth Center on $750,000 bail.
Prosecutors said Perkins served as the lookout and getaway driver April 26 when Angelo Douglas, 17, and Marquail Thomas went into the Walgreens at 6101 Northwest Radial.
Thomas, 18, was armed with a sawed-off shotgun that was later found to be unloaded.
Thomas was shot to death by customer James McCullough, who had gone to the store to buy ice cream.
Douglas was held at gunpoint by McCullough until police arrived.
The shooting was deemed justified by Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine. No charges were filed against McCullough.
Prosecutors say that all three involved in the robbery attempt were gang members and that Perkins has admitted his involvement.
He had no criminal record and was last enrolled at Omaha Central. Before that, he had attended Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson.
His lack of a record and strong show of family support played a part in Polk's decision Wednesday to transfer the case.
Perkins' 75-year-old grandfather testified that the boy grew up attending church services each Sunday. Church is where Perkins learned to play the drums.
George Perkins, speaking with a soft voice, said his grandson has never been in a fight at school and has never been disrespectful to others. George Perkins and his wife raised JauVier from ages 2 to 11, when he moved back in with his mother.
“He shouldn't have been involved in what he was involved in,” George Perkins said. “If we all look into our closet, we can find things that aren't pleasing.”
Public Defender Cindy Tate said that in the weeks before the robbery, Perkins moved into the home of one of the robbery suspects, Douglas.
Tate said the home had little or no supervision, even though an adult was in the home. She said police had been monitoring the home because of suspected criminal activity there.
Tate said Perkins started skipping school and doing as he pleased.
She said Perkins initially didn't know the others were planning an armed robbery and then told Thomas not to go into the store.
Thomas replied with an expletive and told Perkins he was just scared before grabbing a shotgun from under the car seat, Tate said.
She said Thomas, Douglas and an unidentified adult planned the robbery and those three, not Perkins, stood to gain from it.
“He knew enough not to walk into the Walgreens but not enough to stay away,” Tate said of Perkins. “Which is why I think this kid is savable, judge.”
Polk said that since Perkins thinks he's so “big and bad,” he was tempted to send him to adult court to “get what you get.”
Speaking sternly, Polk pointed to the boy's grandfather, who he said should be on a golf course or fishing instead of having to take the stand to defend him.
“You should be embarrassed, hang-your-head-on-the-table embarrassed,” Polk said. “You should be out mowing his grass and taking care of him like he's taking care of you.”
Kleine said he respectfully disagreed with Polk's decision. He said that, given the seriousness of the charges and the fact that someone died, the case should have been tried in adult court.
He said police continue to investigate whether the other suspects were involved in a series of robberies.
Contact the writer:
444-1279, jason.kuiper@
School Gets New $4 Million Home
The Wall Street Journal
By SHELLY BANJO
July 1, 2010
To Patricia Lanza, the key to reaching at-risk youth is finding the activity or approach that unlocks each child's potential.
To help children from foster care and the juvenile justice system find activities that are meaningful to them, the widow of Frank Lanza, co-founder of defense contractor L-3 Communications, donated $4 million to the Children's Village, a 150-year-old school that serves nearly 7,000 at-risk, foster care and runaway youth and families a year, to build a new activities center.
The new center, built on the Village's Dobbs Ferry campus, will serve as a central hub for student life and replaces a dilapidated building from the 1950s.
The facility, which opened this month, includes a fitness center, swimming pool, atrium, café, and a commercial kitchen to hold the charity's food services training program. It also includes a barbershop, which serves as a work site for young people training to be apprentice barbers.
"Everything we do at Children's Village is based on the notion that every minute is a teachable moment," says Jeremy C. Kohomban, the charity's president and CEO. "We do whatever we can to introduce our boys to meaningful activities so they choose to do something important with their time rather than stay on the street."
Nearly half of the children the Village serves come from the juvenile justice system, with the other half coming from foster care. More than 500 children attend its residential school and nearly 85% of its graduates stay in high school, while nearly 40% attain a part-time job, Mr. Kohomban says.
County approves juvenile justice board
Cibola Beacon (NM)
By Diane Fowler
July 1, 2010
GRANTS - The Cibola County Commission recently approved the creation of a “juvenile justice continuum,” which will create a system of services and sanctions for juveniles arrested or referred to juvenile probation and parole. Minors at risk of arrest or probation will also be eligible for the services.
The county will join in a partnership with one or more units of local governments, tribal governments, the children's court, the district attorney, the public defender, local law enforcement agencies, the public schools and other community organizations.
The resolution, which was written by and presented at the commission meeting by Judge Camille Martinez-Olguin, cited the New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey for High School and the Cibola County Statistical Abstract of Juvenile Justice Services.
The document has provisions for the county to act as fiscal agent for the local juvenile justice continuum board because there are multiple funding streams for implementing programs addressing the prevention and intervention of juveniles that would prevent or minimize juvenile involvement in the justice system.
The county will enter into a memorandum of understanding defining its role in the partnerships it will form with appropriate partners. The commission's participation in the continuum is contingent on compliance with the New Mexico Open Meetings Act and will require a quarterly report on the activities of the continuum.
The document states that money in the juvenile continuum grant fund will be subject to appropriation by the state legislature to the Children's, Youth and Families Department for awarding grants to juvenile justice continuums for the provision of cost effective services and temporary, non-secure alternatives to detention for juveniles.
It further states that local or tribal governments may apply for a grant for a juvenile justice continuum within its jurisdiction and may accept local grants of money, land equipment or in-kind services and that rules will be adopted by CYFD on qualifications for grant applications.
Grant fund disbursements will be made upon vouchers issued and signed by the CYFD secretary.
The resolution defines a “juvenile justice continuum” as “a system of services and sanctions for juveniles arrested and referred to juvenile probation and parole or at risk of such a referral and consists of a formal partnership among one or more units of local or tribal governments, the children's court, the district attorney, the public defender, local law enforcement agencies, the public schools and other entities such as private non-profit organizations, the business community and religious organizations. A juvenile justice continuum shall be established through a memorandum of understanding and a continuum board.”
Martinez-Olguin said she is very optimistic about the new undertaking. “We've already had seven partners agree to join us in this venture,” she said. “Agencies which signed up for an application will be eligible for initial funding.”
Should Maryland open juvenile records?
D.C. Council considering such a move
The Baltimore Sun (MD)
By Peter Hermann
July 3, 2010
In Baltimore, so many youngsters are charged with crimes as adults that the state says it needs to spend $100 million to build a new jail for them.
In Washington, lawmakers fed up with crime want to publicly expose the sealed criminal records of recidivist teenagers — to deter them from furthering their criminal careers and to hold the district's secretive and juvenile justice system accountable.
These are just some examples of how local jurisdictions are struggling to satisfy the desire to protect, rehabilitate and salvage the lives of young criminals and at the same time assure a scared and skeptical citizenry that government is doing all it can to keep them safe.
Youth advocates vigorously argue that maintaining secrecy is vital to protecting society's most vulnerable charges even as they condemn the juvenile system as a failure. Those on the other side argue just as vigorously that the system fails because its leaders can hide behind a facade of protecting the young criminal's privacy.
Terry F. Hickey, founder and director of Baltimore's Community Law Center in Action, which works with at-risk youths, likens naming teen offenders to publicly flogging them, as nothing more than a bid by politicians without real ideas to placate voters angry over seeing the same young suspects over and over again.
"I don't see what purpose it serves," Hickey told me. "Naming them is not going to change the mind of kids who think that violence is going to be their hallmark on the world. … Let's make sure he never gets a job, won't get housing and will never get a student loan."
I agree that making their records public might not keep them from stealing another car. But it would help explain how and why a youth had another opportunity to steal another car, or had another chance to shoot someone, and whether the system worked or simply pushed them into the revolving door.
Hickey argues against a new jail, saying that it "represents the status quo" of warehousing youthful offenders instead of trying to help them. He's also against opening juvenile records: "Are we going to balance accountability on the backs of these kids?"
Unfortunately, sometimes accountability carries the price of public exposure.
Phil Mendelson, chairman of the District of Columbia City Council's Public Safety Committee, is proposing legislation that would open to the public all of a youth's juvenile records, and outcomes of hearings, after a juvenile has been found guilty of serious offenses.
The lawmaker had wanted confidentiality lifted after a second offense. His committee rewrote the bill and sent it to the full council to open files after just one offense, demonstrating the level of frustration over repeat juvenile criminals.
"I believe that confidentiality has made it more difficult to hold the system accountable," Mendelson told me. He called D.C. laws regarding the secrecy involving juvenile proceedings among the most restrictive in the country, noting that even police officers have a difficult time getting records.
"In the short run it may be that there's a juvenile who will suffer more than he, she would have with confidentiality," Mendelson said. "But I think, what we're getting at are the violent offenders, and they're not the ones who are so innocent. But more broadly, if the system is more accountable, then I hope the system will make better decisions. And that will benefit the kids more.
"This is only for violent crimes," the district lawmaker said. "If a kid as been convicted 13 times of shoplifting, he's not caught up in this. But he's been convicted once of stealing a car, the next one he loses confidentiality."
Donald W. DeVore, secretary of Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services, said this state is already far ahead of the district when it comes to sharing the criminal histories of juveniles with a myriad of law enforcement agencies. Police have access to juvenile records from their patrol cars, while such information is blocked to officers in D.C.
In addition, he noted that in Maryland many juveniles are automatically charged as adults (which makes their names and some of their criminal history public) in many crimes, while in the district it is up to prosecutors who in some cases have to petition the attorney-general for permission. In D.C., the cutoff for being charged as an adult with murder is 16; in Maryland it's 14.
DeVore and his chief of staff, Tammy Brown, argue that Maryland juvenile agencies are heavily scrutinized within the law enforcement community and that every killing of a youth is studied all the way up to the governor's office.
It is such reviews, the officials said, that have led to stark reductions in juvenile crime across the state. So far this year in Baltimore, DeVore said, seven youths have been shot and wounded, down from 13 at this time in 2009. An additional four youths have been killed in the city so far this year, including one on Thursday, compared with eight at this time last year. Slayings of youths in Maryland have declined from 24 through June last year compared with 13 this year.
"We're looking at public safety and providing information that won't hamper the youth's ability to be rehabilitated," Brown said, adding that her agency feels that the information-sharing with law enforcement personnel "ensures our communities are safe and that we're focusing on the most difficult kids and the kids at greatest risk."
DeVore said treating juvenile offenders the same as adults means throwing them away, noting that the recidivism rate among imprisoned adults is two to three times that of juvenile offenders. "Do you really want the types of outcomes the adult system gets?" DeVore said.
Attempts to strike this delicate balance have led to a confusing and confounding array of laws that leave even judges perplexed. Maryland's legislature has expanded public access to juvenile proceedings — but not to records. That has helped people gain a greater understanding of juvenile court, but it stops short of opening full files and hearings and most often leaves the most crucial questions unanswered.
For example, last fall a 17-year-old freed from the juvenile center after a drug bust went home with his mother and was charged with killing a man just a few hours later. His name became public because he was charged as an adult, and that led me to his juvenile history, not from public records, but leaked by a law enforcement source angry that this teen had been arrested a dozen times before his 12th birthday.
The charges included firing a gun, drug dealing, assault and stealing a car.
Not exactly swiping bubble gum from a candy jar.
But trying to determine what happened to this young man while locked up by juvenile authorities proved impossible. The newspaper had to fight in court so I could watch a one-minute, 38-second video of a court hearing that immediately preceded his latest release.
Unfortunately, the hearing offered no clues as to how the juvenile system dealt with this young man in the years, months and even hours before the killing.
After 5-year-old Raven Wyatt was shot in the head in Southwest Baltimore last year, pitched battles were fought over the juvenile record of the 17-year-old suspect, and the secrecy surrounding his past only led to more confusion and anger.
Horrified officials repeated that the young man had violated his home detention more than 100 times, a figure that sparked cries for reform and the rolling of heads and became so ingrained in the rhetoric of the case that both the prosecutor and the defense attorney stipulated it was true at trial.
After the trial, and after Lamont Davis was found guilty, we learned the actual number: eight.
If only the public had been privy to this "top secret" information earlier. Making these records public would've helped the young suspect and exposed false statements perpetuated by law enforcement.
Openness can help everyone.
Juvenile diversion plan shows teens path away from trouble
A NEW ORGANIZATION HELPS TEENS EXIT THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM THROUGH A SPECIAL PROGRAM IN LIBERTY CITY
The Miami Herald (FL)
By THEO KARANTSALIS
July 6, 2010
If it weren't for a new program to help teens like him, Wayne Thurman figures he'd be behind bars -- or worse.
``I wasn't too happy when the judge sent me here,'' said Wayne, 17, who was suspended from school and later arrested. Then he was referred by the state attorney's office to a program that would give him a second chance. ``The judge said if I did it, the court would clear my record.''
Launched in March, the Empowered Youth Neighborhood post-detention program helps troubled teens redirect their lives. Through group and individual mentoring, young people ages 12 to 19 tackle anger, forgiveness, trust and relationships.
``Five thousand kids go through the county's juvenile system each year,'' said Colleen Adams, Empowered Youth's founder. ``And 100 percent of them come from broken homes.''
To qualify, students must meet certain requirements and be referred by the court after all sides agree, according to Adams, a former model who also works as the community relations director for Miami-based Perry Ellis International.
``We need programs like this in neighborhoods all over the county,'' said County Court Judge Marcia Cabrera, who is familiar with the juvenile justice process and applauds students who complete diversion programs like Empowered Youth's. ``The key is education.''
However, unlike other educational programs, Cabrera said that the justice system ``doesn't want them to come back.''
Instead, mentors encourage them to finish high school and then continue on to college.
At first, Wayne said he was defiant and didn't want to pull up his pants, remove his grills or talk to people he doesn't know in a group setting. But once his mentors said he could ``keep it real,'' he agreed to open up.
``We talk to them the way we really talk, feel me?'' Wayne said. ``Nobody fronts.''
Mentors include law students from the University of Miami's Bar & Gavel club, former NFL player Barrett Green, community leaders and other volunteers.
The group meets twice a week at the Belafonte-Tacolcy Center, 6161 NW 62nd Ave., and is open to most juvenile justice offenders. Participants meet two to three times per week over four months.
The last class included teens from all over the county.
Adams said that all of the adults working in her program are volunteers, and she has received a few donations to pay expenses. In the future, Empowered Youth seeks to expand to other communities.
What makes this program different from others is that the support base includes the side that wants to prosecute them, the side that wants to keep them out, and the ones who will ultimately decide the case.
The goal: to deter those children most likely to become involved with the justice system starting with the sixth-graders, according to Melia Arnett, an assistant state attorney.
``They learn things others learn the hard way,'' said Arnett. ``For example, many don't know that lookouts are just as responsible for the consequences of a crime.''
The four-month program teaches life skills and job preparation. For example, they learn how to assert themselves, how to say no and how to handle their affairs with confidence.
Once they graduate, they can submit their paperwork to the court to clear their record.
Seventy-five supporters joined Wayne and five classmates as they sat in the front row on Saturday to celebrate their graduation. Supporters filled the seats, including family members, a judge, a prosecutor, a public defender and friends.
After a lyrics disclaimer and vowing to ``keep it real,'' Miami rap star Blade sang his hit Quarter of a Century. Students swayed and bobbed to words that pierced their souls.
Heads down, knowing that challenges lurk once they leave, students huddled in their seats and sang along with Blade: ``We made it through the worst, happened for a reason/ Even though it hurt, lotta lessons learned.''
Blade, eyes full of tears, gazed at teary-eyed students gazing back, pondering their next move.
Said Blade: ``We ain't gonna take no more pain.''
Teen faces 110 years in shootings
Omaha World-Herald (NE)
By Todd Cooper
July 7, 2010
An Omaha teenager faces up to 110 years in prison for his involvement in two shootings, including one in which he shot at an Omaha police officer.
Cameron O. Williams, 16, could be sentenced to up to 100 years in prison for shooting at Omaha Police Officer Josiah Warren after police pulled over Williams and two others near 84th and F Streets in November.
Prosecutors say Williams shot at Warren — the bullet ricocheting off of a sidewalk five feet in front of the officer — as he tried to escape a traffic stop.
Wednesday morning, Williams pleaded no contest to attempted second-degree murder and weapon use for shooting at the officer.
Warren returned fire, hitting Williams in the back of the shoulder. Williams fell to the ground. Officers found $4,840 in cash and 3.5 pounds of marijuana by his side.
Williams' attorney, Glenn Shapiro, said his client has supportive family members — including an involved mom and grandfather — but was "no doubt" being used by the two other, older men who were in the car with him that day.
Williams was 15 at the time; the two other men were in their early 20s. One is awaiting trial. The other man, 21-year-old Charles M. Thompson, was sentenced to eight to 17 years in prison for his role in the drug dealing and an earlier burglary.
Williams "does have good family structure," Shapiro said. "But it's a tug of war between family and the streets. The kind of money they're talking about, it's like dangling candy in front of a kid."
Shapiro said his client made a horrible mistake in shooting back in the direction of the officer. However, he said, he believes his client is salvageable.
"There's hope that he can have a productive life," Shapiro said.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine questioned where that structure and hope were in the months leading up to the shooting. Kleine noted that the 15-year-old was involved in a shooting near 144th and Harrison Streets in Sarpy County two months before he shot at the officer.
Williams also pleaded Wednesday to two charges in Sarpy County District Court in connection with a 15-year-old Millard boy who was shot during a marijuana deal.
Originally charged with first-degree assault and robbery, Williams pleaded no contest to attempted first-degree assault and to being an accessory to a felony. Authorities linked the gun Williams used to shoot at the Omaha police officer to the earlier Sarpy County case. However, authorities couldn't prove that Williams was the shooter in the Sarpy County case, Shapiro said.
Williams will be sentenced in both cases in September.
"It's just difficult to comprehend a 15-year-old being involved in these kinds of things," Kleine said. "Cameron Williams is going to do a serious amount of time for these deeds."
Well-Known New Orleans Juvenile Judge Steps Down Amid Controversy
David Bell, former chief judge, faced sexual harassment allegations
Youth Today
By John Kelly
July 7, 2010
Judge David Bell, the former chief juvenile judge of the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court in Louisiana and a prominent participant in a national detention reform movement, resigned last month instead of fighting allegations of sexual misconduct by several women involved in his court.
Bell told Youth Today that he now regrets resigning, after the Louisiana Judiciary Commission yesterday publicized part of a report that claims that Bell harassed some women at the courthouse and dated two of his subordinates.
“My biggest regret here is that I resigned as opposed to staying there and fighting the charges,” Bell said. “I resigned so the good work we did wouldn’t be tarnished and drug through the mud. I see now I should have [fought the allegations]…there's no way to keep mud from being slung."
Bell, 40, stepped down on June 17, two days after the Louisiana Supreme Court ordered him to stay out of the courthouse until disciplinary proceedings began.
Bell started his own law firm in 1996 and was elected to the bench in 2004. He assumed his new position just before Hurricane Katrina struck the city in August of 2005, and the judge saw the aftermath of the storm as an opportunity to address a number of problems with the way the court worked.
With only a small population having returned to the city, Bell used the free time and a crew of volunteers to identify any of the staggering 26,500 open juvenile cases that could be closed.
(For more on this, read “Hope Springs from Katrina’s Rubble,” September 2006.)
He said on an internet radio show last August that his own indiscretions in life helped him differentiate from the bench between what was normal juvenile behavior and what was actual delinquency.
“I got in trouble growing up … during my teenage years,” Bell told Juvenile Justice Matters, a production of the Campaign for Youth Justice. “I probably still get in trouble on occasion, truth be told.”
Bell was a leader on the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative project in New Orleans, which the parish took on in partnership with the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Bell has been a speaker at Casey’s national JDAI events, and in 2007 CNN profiled his work on reducing detention usage.
Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) named Bell to the Louisiana Advisory Board of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in 2008.
In January, Bell placed himself on medical leave indefinitely. Records included in yesterday’s report show that Bell was diagnosed with bipolar disorder by doctors at Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, Miss. They also told him to attend anonymous groups for alcoholics and sex addicts.
Bell remained on medical leave until April. But in mid-March, fellow juvenile judge Ernestine Gray lodged the complaint that eventually led to a two-volume report by the judiciary commission.
The report publicized yesterday contains all of the first volume, except for certain information regarding Bell’s medical records.
The report was filed on March 19, three days after the W.K. Kellogg Foundation gave Bell the Kellogg Fellows Leadership Alliance 2009 Matusak Courageous Leadership Award “for his leading role in overhauling the juvenile court system in Orleans Parish.”
Family Wants 12-year-old Shooting Suspect Rehabilitated
Family tells KSPR they forgive the 12-year-old suspect.
KSPR-TV (MO)
July 8, 2010
Family members are standing by the 12-year-old accused of killing his parents. They want him tried as a juvenile, rehabilitated and given a chance at a future. The boy’s first hearing was an emotional day for Rachel and Jaeson Duncan's families.
A judge ruled the boy must stay in juvenile custody until his certification hearing. Rachel Duncan’s uncle Terry Rowden says she was more like a sister to him. They were only three years apart. “He was about the sweetest and lovingest one of the bunch,” Rowden said. That's how he and a handful of other family members described the boy investigators say killed his parents inside a Kaiser, Mo., mobile home. “The last year or so he's gotten around the wrong crowd at the lack he is in a bad environment there at that trailer park,” Rowden said.
Rowden describes 35-year-old Rachel Duncan as generous and loving. He says the boy’s stepdad, 31-year-old Jaeson Duncan was hardworking and strict. “He was probably a little heavy handed, but I never saw any bruises,” Rowden said. “I asked the other boys, and they say he never punched them or anything like that. I believe he was trying to discipline, straighten this boy up and keep him off the road he was heading down.”
Instead, the boy sits inside the Mary Dickerson Juvenile Justice Center. He is possibly facing murder charges as an adult. The looming question is why. “I'm not sure that he knows,” Rowden said. “His only answer is that he got mad and it doesn't make any sense to anybody I know.”
The family says the boy is sorry. When they visit, they say he cries constantly. After losing two lives, the family says they hope he can be rehabilitated and get a chance at a future. “We are a Christian family. We believe in forgiveness. We believe forgiveness is a necessity,” Rowden said. “Christ forgave the worst of us. That's the way we got to do it.” Rachel’s uncle admits it was not easy at first. “I was initially angry when I heard the evidence,” Rowden said. “Until I saw that baby walk in and cry on my shoulder. He is a baby. He is a lost baby.”
The family says the boy had one request to say to the media. “Please stop putting it on the news. He doesn't want everyone to hate him, and he is very sorry,” Rowden said.
No date is set for the certification hearing to decide if the 12-year-old will be tried as an adult.
DJJ cuts schools, requires furloughs
The Associated Press (SC)
By SEANNA ADCOX
July 8, 2010
Posted on:
COLUMBIA -- The state juvenile justice agency is cutting teachers, closing a residential program for minor offenders and requiring employee furloughs, but its director said Wednesday he remains positive about the coming year.
The additional cuts are needed as the Department of Juvenile Justice weathers a nearly 30 percent cut in state funding in two years, director Bill Byars said. But it could have been worse, he added, noting an early version of the 2010-11 budget would have required closing, among other things, half of the residential wilderness camps for students with truancy and other minor problems.
"We've made our adjustments. ... We're still fairly upbeat," he said, though he's concerned about more cuts in 2011-12 as federal stimulus money runs out.
The state's nearly $5 billion spending plan that started July 1 is $2 billion less than two years ago.
Cost-cutting plans for the agency include cutting 14 school jobs, including 10 teachers and an administrator, and putting male and female students in the same building -- though in different classrooms -- so the agency can close a second school.
The agency also will close, on July 31, a wilderness camp in Jonesville for 12- to 17-year-old males -- leaving 11 camps still open -- and require most employees to take seven days off without pay over the next year. Executive staff will take a 10-day furlough, while some administrators, including Byars, will take a 14-day pay cut. Employees learned of the plans in an e-mail Friday.
The agency's previous cuts amid the recession include cutting 335 jobs, eliminating substance-abuse and tattoo-removal programs, and closing 19 local programs to find jobs for at-risk youth. It also had closed two dorms and a lockup behind the razor wire in Columbia, and five lower-cost group homes and a wilderness camp for lesser offenses.
But Byars said his agency can still accommodate juvenile offenders safely and securely.
That's possible, he said, because of intensive supervision for released serious offenders and other changes over the past seven years that turn juveniles away from a life of crime.
Those changes included increasing after-school centers and placing students in minor trouble, generally because they're behind in school, in wilderness camps run by Clemson University, he said.
Following a class action lawsuit that claimed overcrowding, physical abuse and inadequate medical care at the department's three prisons, the federal government began monitoring the agency in 1995. But little progress was made until Gov. Mark Sanford appointed Byars, a former Family Court judge, as director in 2003. Federal oversight was lifted later that year.
The agency will oversee 30 percent fewer juveniles this year, or roughly 20,000, than it did seven years ago, when it supervised more than 29,300. On Tuesday, there were 12 girls behind the razor wire in Columbia, compared to 90 when Byars took over the agency.
"They've made remarkable progress over the last few years," said Harry Davis, director of the Children's Law Center at the University of South Carolina.
Before Byars' arrival, children with minor offenses were imprisoned with violent juveniles and coming out much meaner and tougher. Byars worked with legislators to get money for the alternative programs and community supervision, Davis said.
Commentary: Juvenile hall is inappropriate for young minors
Cupertino Courier (CA)
By Dave Cortese
July 8, 2010
If you speak to anyone on the street, there will be an almost unanimous consensus that most minors under the age of 18 should not be placed in adult jail facilities where they would interact with hardened criminals and witness unsavory activities. This viewpoint was actually memorialized with the passing of the 1974 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Act. This federal law prohibited the placement of youth in adult jails except under very limited circumstances so that the young minds of juveniles would not be influenced by the older offenders in adult jail.
It is with this similar reasoning that at my request, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors has adopted a policy that states that minors 12 years old and younger should not be placed in juvenile hall and that the county should develop local alternatives for the safe, temporary placement of children 12 and under who commit a serious crime.
In a congregate care setting such as juvenile hall, the opportunities are numerous for impressionable young children to model the behaviors of the older peers who have often been through the system many times and have developed negative behaviors. As a result, rather than providing them with positive role models to look up to, placing them in juvenile hall actually increases the chance that the young children will become repeat offenders.
That is not to say that children should not be punished for committing serious crimes, rather that children of that age are easily influenced and that the county should help guide them toward being good citizens of society. Too often, young children who commit crimes are instantly labeled as life-long criminals when with the right atmosphere and mentoring, they can learn right from wrong.
By placing young children into juvenile hall, there is a risk of further aggravating the trauma that these children have most likely already experienced. According to the study undertaken by the county's Juvenile Justice Commission, 90 percent of the children under 13 who have been placed in juvenile hall from 2007 to 2009 had a history of trauma or child abuse, a diagnosed mental illness or an absent parent. Rather than correcting the behavior, the experience of being locked up will most likely make it even harder to educate the youth on how to become a model citizen.
As an alternative, the county is developing therapeutic foster homes that allow for a more positive experience for the children who have come into the system. As such, these children will be more likely to respond to the positive input provided by the staff in a nurturing environment and will have a greater likelihood of a positive outcome.
It is believed that this policy is the first of its kind in the nation. Therefore, I have also asked that the county explore working with neighboring counties to develop a policy of shared placements appropriate for children 12 years old and younger who commit a serious crime. Rather than allowing older criminal offenders to influence another generation, we can break the cycle and steer these young children on the path toward success. And by working with other jurisdictions in the Bay Area, we can design a successful program that will help to guide our youngest members of the community. Ideally this program will be adopted by others around the nation to truly make a difference in the lives of the generations to come.
Dave Cortese is a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. You can reach him at dave.cortese@bos..
D.C. youth justice agency's school improvements deemed 'remarkable'
The Washington Post (DC)
By Henri E. Cauvin
July 9, 2010
The monitor overseeing the court-ordered reform of the District's juvenile justice agency said in a report filed Thursday that the city has staged a "remarkable" turnaround in how it educates juveniles in long-term detention and had moved a step closer to ending a long-running class-action lawsuit.
Once marked by a dearth of certified teachers and a lack of appropriate special-education services, the school serving sentenced juveniles was turned over to a private foundation three years ago and has become a model educational program for a juvenile correctional facility, the monitor, Grace M. Lopes, said.
In a 54-page report filed in D.C. Superior Court, Lopes said her educational expert, Carol Cramer Brooks, had conducted an assessment of the school over several months in 2009 and 2010 and concluded that the school was one of the "best programs" Brooks had ever seen. The school, Brooks said, has a strong, committed staff, a low student-teacher ratio, a well-defined curriculum and an abundance of energy and creativity among the faculty.
Called the Maya Angelou Academy, the school is operated by the See Forever Foundation, which also runs the two-campus Maya Angelou Public Charter School in the District. The academy is housed at New Beginnings, the detention facility that the District opened in Laurel last year for long-term juvenile detainees, and its bright, modern space would be the envy of many parents who send their children to D.C. public schools.
While the new home certainly bolstered the school's standing, the changes began in 2007, soon after See Forever was contracted to take over the school, called the Oak Hill Academy, and which had been perhaps the most troubled part of the notorious Oak Hill detention center. In the late 1990s, the school was briefly placed in receivership, and as recently as 2005 and 2006, the monitor was reporting that the school was racked by violence, disorder and chronic student absenteeism and lacked any functional administrative infrastructure.
Under pressure from the court, a sweeping reform effort was launched by then-Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) in 2005 with the hiring of Vincent N. Schiraldi to lead the new Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. In 2007, See Forever was brought on to take over the school at Oak Hill and within months, the monitor was seeing signs of change, with a "dynamic, creative team of teachers."
For DYRS, the report is a boost to its efforts, which have been faulted repeatedly by critics who disagree with the agency's emphasis on rehabilitation. A recent run of high-profile crimes involving juveniles has heightened their criticism.
"Though we realize there is more work to be done, we are very encouraged by our progress and DYRS will continue to work hard to help young people succeed in school, go to college, and prepare for the world of work, all of which results in safer neighborhoods for everyone," DYRS interim director Marc A. Schindler said in a statement.
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), who as a member of the council championed the reform effort, praised the progress noted in the monitor's report. "DYRS has transformed its school system -- which was among the worst in the country -- and turned it around to meet this administration's goal of having a world-class education system for D.C.'s young people, regardless of where they are in our city."
School accused of shackling student sued
The Associated Press (LA)
July 9, 2010
Posted on:
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal lawsuit was filed Thursday over the alleged handcuffing and shackling of a student at a New Orleans elementary school.
The suit alleges a 6-year-old boy was arrested at Sarah T. Reed Elementary School by security officers and restrained to a chair several times after failing to follow directions. The student is identified only as “J.W.”
The suit also says students at the school are in “a prison-type environment in which armed police officers viciously seize students for minor, non-criminal infractions.”
The suit was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. They have asked that the lawsuit be certified as a class action. Named as defendants are the Recovery School District, the state education board, the school’s principal and security officers.
Ken Jones, director of communications for the school district, said an investigation concluded that the alleged incident was an isolated one.
“The student was not arrested, however the two employees involved were terminated,” Jones said in a statement.
He said the district would have no further comment on pending litigation.
Juvenile suspect in Central City shooting arraigned as adult
The Times-Picayune (LA)
By Ramon Antonio Vargas
July 9, 2010
The juvenile suspect of a May 1 shooting in Central City was arraigned as an adult on two attempted murder charges in Criminal District Court on Friday.
Brian Plummer, 16, entered pleas of "not guilty." No bail was set before the brief hearing ended.
Authorities accuse Plummer of walking up to a fellow 16-year-old at the intersection of Second and Clara streets that Saturday night and shooting him once.
The victim ran from his attacker to the 2600 block of Magnolia Street. A person there called police, but when officers arrived, they were told that someone had already given the victim a ride to the hospital.
The wounded youth was listed in critical condition but survived, police said at the time.
Investigators publicly named Plummer a suspect on May 14, alleging that he and the victim had been feuding for a month before the shooting. Then, on June 21, the District Attorney's Office filed a bill of information charging Plummer -- who had been arrested in the meantime -- as an adult with two counts of attempted second-degree murder.
It is not clear if a second person was struck or merely aimed at during the incident, as police had not previously made mention of another victim. The bill of information identified both of Plummer's alleged victims by name but did not specify the injuries to either.
Authorities held Plummer at the Youth Study Center, a city-run juvenile detention facility in Gentilly. They moved him to Orleans Parish Prison about mid-day Thursday.
When asked if he could afford an attorney during his court appearance Friday, the teen muttered, "No."
Plummer's 17th birthday is Aug. 8. Each of his murder charges carries a maximum of 50 years in prison upon conviction.
JJDPA Non-Compliance Rises in 2009
Three states continue to account for majority of violations.
Youth Today
By John Kelly
August 1, 2010
(Subscription required)
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act monitors issued seven findings of noncompliance to states in 2009, more than in any year since 2000. All of them pertained to the two most serious requirements, and most were in the three states that are frequent compliance offenders: Mississippi, South Carolina and Washington.
In recent years, most states consistently have stayed faithful to the tenets of the act, which is long overdue for reauthorization. But the carrots and sticks of JJDPA appear to have no effect on the small number of states who are outside the norm.
Four aspects of juvenile justice systems must be maintained by states for them to be considered compliant participants in the JJDPA. States that are completely compliant with the act are given the full share of their formula funds from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), an amount that is based on how much Congress appropriates each year and the size of each state’s youth population…
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