ADJU 8/SOCI 8 -- Week 7 -- Barstow College

For example, "Studies of children who avoid problem behavior despite living in high-risk situations show that strong bonds with an adult - whether parent or other family member, teacher, coach community member or other significant adult - can decrease the likelihood of delinquent behavior.

"Without strong bonds to positive individuals and groups with healthy beliefs and clear standards for behavior, youth may bond with those who have unhealthy beliefs and standards, such as gangs." (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Guide for Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent and Chronic Juvenile Offenders)

What do Floridians think about prevention? In a 1997 statewide survey by the Florida State University School of Criminology that dealt with fear of crime and related perceptions, 4,500 men and women were given a list of 10 policies and asked to rate them on whether they "will reduce juvenile crime."

The top four answers were:

1.More jobs for young people (83.4 percent)

2.Programs for pregnant teens (82.8 percent)

3.Role model programs (81 percent)

4.Prevention programs (75.2 percent)

Other responses included:

5.Sending repeat juvenile offenders to adult court (72.1 percent)

6.After-school programs (54.5 percent)

7.Curfew laws (64.2 percent)

8.School uniforms (55.6 Percent)

9.Locking up more juvenile offenders (46.6 percent)

10.Death penalty for juveniles who murder (37 percent)

One of the businesses honored with a 1998 Governor's Community Investment Award for its commitment to youth was Beaver Street Fisheries in Jacksonville, FL. Employees get paid time off to mentor kids, who are promised a future job if they stay in school and out of trouble. Said owner Karl Frisch, "In 1994, our employees' cars were being vandalized and stolen on a weekly basis. I spent my afternoons trying to outrun 12- and 14-year-olds. We got the message - that we cannot win this battle with force. No matter how many kids you put in jail, you cannot win this fight. We decided to show these kids we are not the enemy; we are family." And the vandalism there has all but disappeared.

Prevention is cheaper than locking up a juvenile. It costs at least $27,375 to house and treat a single juvenile for one year in a facility for high-risk offenders; for that same amount, one can run a delinquency prevention program for dozens of young people.

A 1996 study by the RAND Institute found that programs encouraging high-risk youth to finish school prevent five times as many crimes as those imposing stiffer penalties. The study compared costs of programs focused on keeping children in school with California's Three Strikes law and found that "stay in school" programs prevented 250 crimes for every $1 million spent versus 62 for every $1 million spent on locking up prisoners under California's Three Strikes law.

Today in Florida, there are 1.4 million youth between the ages of 10 and 17. The state is experiencing a teenage population boom, with a 18 percent increase predicted for 12- to 14-year-olds in the decade leading up to the year 2005, and a 26 percent jump in 15- to 17-year-olds during that same period.

Most kids stay out of trouble. Consistently throughout the last five years, only about 1 in 13 youth (or between 7.1 and 7.8 percent) were referred for delinquency.

But given the surge in teenage population and the pressures that exist on today's youth and families, it is critical that everyone - this state agency, local communities, concerned individuals and parents - focus on helping young people develop healthy minds and bodies. The goals for prevention and early intervention established by the Department of Juvenile Justice are to guide and support youth in learning to make good choices and to urge kids to:

· Stay in School

· Keep Busy

· Live Violence-Free

· Get a Job

What are some key risk factors currently impacting youth and families?

1.Almost one in three Florida children lives in a single-parent household, an increase over 10 years ago.

2.Rates of domestic violence, child abuse and divorce remain high.

3.Extended families of yesteryear have given way too often to teenage moms raising children alone, isolated from their communities.

4.One in four Florida children live in poverty, again up from a decade ago.

5.Many children and youth, especially during after-school hours, are raising themselves with little or no adult supervision.

6.Drugs and alcohol are widely available, and substance abuse is interwoven with failure in other areas. Over the past five years, juvenile drug cases in Florida have more than doubled.

7.Violence more than ever is a constant drumbeat in our neighborhoods and schools, in popular culture and on the nightly news.

8.Truancy is a major problem; most youth who end up in the juvenile justice system have not been regularly attending school and they often are far behind academically.

9.Emotional and mental problems among children and adolescents often are not diagnosed or dealt with adequately; up to 60 percent of the juveniles who commit crimes are estimated to be in need of mental health counseling or treatment.

Across Florida, community leaders concerned about combating juvenile crime are part of citizen-led juvenile justice council councils (representing all 67 counties) and district boards (in each of the state’s 15 juvenile justice districts). These citizen volunteers provide leadership and develop local juvenile justice plans for helping keep kids out of trouble. The boards and councils target their efforts to meet challenges (which could include truancy, drugs, lack of after-school activities, gangs and teenage pregnancy) affecting youth in their area of the state. Members also make recommendations on funding of local prevention and intervention programs.

One example of the cooperative, coordinated efforts spawned by these local plans is Escambia County. There, the juvenile justice council’s county plan, signed by over 25 public and private agencies working with youth, led to an inter-agency agreement. It was approved and signed on Sept. 15, 1998 by such parties as the Clerk of Court Ernie Magaha, School Superintendent Jim May, Sheriff Jim Lowman, Pensacola Chief of Police Norman Chapman, Pensacola Mayor John Fogg, State Attorney Curtis Golden, Department of Children and Families District One Administrator Charles Bates and Department of Juvenile Justice District One Manager John Tallon. They agreed to devote time and staff to priorities in the plan, which include increasing the number of prevention and early intervention programs for children (beginning in elementary school), improving educational and vocational alternatives for middle- and high-school students suspended for misconduct and looking at apprenticeships for youth who complete delinquency treatment programs.

Over $16 million in grants are available this year for community-based programs aimed at keeping boys and girls away from criminal activities. That contrasts with a more minimal investment in such efforts prior to the creation of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice four years ago. The funds (which are both state and federal) include a new allocation this year of $1 million for "community organizations that emphasizes faith-based approaches to prevention and early intervention services for juveniles."

The consequences of juvenile crime and violence are very real, from the damaged or ruined lives of both the victims and the perpetrators, to a loss of childhood innocence and the violation of general security in playgrounds, schoolhouses, homes and neighborhoods. Statistics can't tell the whole story because one slaying, one scared victim, one habitual juvenile felon is always one too many.

On the positive side, the number of juvenile cases for some serious crimes in Florida has fallen over the last five years: murder/manslaughter decreased by 42 percent; attempted murder was cut in half, down 49 percent; armed robbery declined 24 percent; auto theft down 32 percent; burglary down 13 percent. But aggravated assault/battery rose 10 percent and drug offenses jumped – with marijuana felonies doubling and marijuana misdemeanors almost doubling. And in the decade leading up to 1995 (the most recent year available for such data) Florida was one away from being the state with the highest juvenile violent crime arrest rate. About 9 percent of 173,525 juvenile delinquency cases received in Florida last year involved violent felonies.

The job of the juvenile probation officer (once known as the case manager) is to capably steer and monitor a youth through the delinquency system. That lasts from arrest, through assessment of the child and his family, recommendations to the state attorney and juvenile judge, and then shadowing that young person, whether he's home on community control or returning from a residential program, to make sure he doesn't stray. Or if he does get in trouble, that there is immediate fallout.

In Baker County (District 4) Alisa Alred has performed this job for four years, and her case management unit is one of the top three in the state. "My kids know I'm serious. If I say, 'Do this, or I'm taking you back to court,' I do it. You set limits, and if they cross those limits, you set consequences. You have to let them know it's serious. Otherwise they think it's a joke," says Alred. "I tell my kids the first time they come through, they get basically one shot. I tell them everybody can get into trouble. You learn from it. But if you don't learn from it, something needs attention, and you go to court. I believe if you scare them the first time, hopefully they won't come back."

First-time offenders here may land in diversion programs like teen court. If they are allowed to stay at home, they may be subject to curfews. Alred checks their school attendance, and she rides with a police officer to see if they're home at night when they're supposed to be.

"It's funny to see them when I come to their house with an officer. One kid, his eyes got four times bigger than usual. He's saying 'What did I do?' I said, "Nothing I hope. I just came by to check on you."

"I try to help them develop skills so they don't commit more crimes, or I send them to programs where they can learn it there . . . A lot of my kids are pretty good. They just need a little guidance. A lot of them don't come back. But the one's that come from a family where dad's in jail and the aunt's selling drugs, it's almost impossible to keep that child out of trouble. One of my frustrations is you have a child who's gone to a residential program and made such progress and completed his GED and learned some job skills and you've seen a change in attitude. And the only option when he gets out is to put him back in that same environment."

From parents who think discipline means just beating children, to parents who refuse to set limits and enforce them (or waited to do that until it was too late), Alred says she sees the end result of "a lack of parenting skills." She also sees a lot of delinquent youth who have been abused (physically or sexually) or who have mental problems or substance abuse problems. And parents who just want to shed all responsibility for their kids.

Among her caseload, "Girls can be the most difficult. Boys will be honest about not doing something. Girls are very manipulative. And they run more than boys." She counts stopping one girl from hitchhiking everywhere and seeing another girl put on a dress and stop painting her fingers black as some of her small successes. There is also the girl, once charged with assaulting her mother, who got a chance to live independently, finish school and earn $2,000 on a job. She's heading now to community college.

"I enjoy it. You have to go into this job knowing you're not going to save all of them.

But I just hope something they've learned while they're with us helps them down the road. That the next time somebody wants to steal a car, they have the sense to say no."

Throughout the last five years, between 7 percent and 8 percent of the juvenile population age 10 to 17 was referred for delinquency. In fiscal year 1997-98, 107,095 youths were referred for delinquency, 1 percent less than a year ago but 15 percent higher than the number referred five years ago.

The rate of reported violent juvenile crime to the total juvenile population in Florida is three times higher than the national rate for 1995 (the last year for which both U.S. and Florida date are available).

Though juveniles charged with a violent crime tend to be black, male and in their mid-teens, whites, females and younger juveniles are being more frequently charged with violent crimes.
Burglary remains the most frequent serious offense by juveniles, followed by aggravated assault/battery and then auto theft.
Drug offense cases involving juveniles more than doubled over the past five years.
Poor school achievement is true for the vast majority of delinquent youth committed by a judge for treatment. Only one in five were doing OK in school.

The rest were failing academically, expelled, suspended or had dropped out all together. Less than a third of them were attending school regularly. Two-thirds of those admitted to commitment programs had been identified in school as aggressive or disruptive.

Only one out of eight delinquent youths who land in commitment programs come from a two-parent home. Single mothers are raising most.

Girls are a fast-rising proportion of the juvenile delinquency system.

Delinquency cases involving girls jumped by 30 percent during the last five years, compared to a 5 percent increase in cases involving males. Cases involving boys actually decreased 2 percent last year. One out of four youth in the system today is a girl; five years ago, it was one out of five.
The overwhelmingly majority of juveniles in commitment programs have never had a job. Only 3.6 percent of youth admitted to those delinquency programs were employed at the time.
Only 19 percent had any work experience.

About 55 percent of youth who commit crimes, when tracked over a three-year period, do not receive additional charges. Recidivism remains a problem, however; overall about two out of three juvenile offenders within a year of release from a day treatment or residential programs have subsequent delinquency referrals or arrests, and about 35 percent have subsequent commitments to a juvenile program or land in adult prison or probation.

Chapter 14

Children's Rights

http://www.hrw.org/hrw/worldreport99/children/child3.html

Juvenile Crime on the Decline?

http://www.abanet.org/crimjust/juvjus/crimerate.html

A CALL FOR JUSTICE

http://www.abanet.org/crimjust/juvjus/excsum.html

The Juvenile Court in the 21st Century

http://www.abanet.org/crimjust/juvjus/JuvenCourt.html

Jury Court for Juvenile's

http://www.abanet.org/journal/jul99/07TJUVIE.html

Challenging Change: Legal Attacks on Juvenile Transfer Reform

http://www.abanet.org/crimjust/juvjus/12-3shep.html

Please read all the articles above. They bring a great insight to the topic of procedures for the juvenile system. Ch 15 will elaborate further.