The Treatment of Young Offenders in the American Justice System

1. The Treatment of Young Offenders in the American Justice System Judge Tom C. Rawlings Juvenile Courts, Georgia United States tom@sandersville.net www.tomrawlings.com

3. Juvenile Courts • 100-year-old tradition • Designed to treat and rehabilitate young offenders. • Punishment is designed to prevent children from going too far astray

4. Goals of Juvenile Justice • Increase Safety In Communities • Hold Juvenile Offenders Accountable To Their Victims And To The Community • Develop Competent And Productive Citizens • In Sum: Balanced and Restorative Justice.

5. Goals of “Adult” Justice • Community Safety • Deterrence of future crime, often through prison • Rehabilitation of the criminal is a secondary consideration

6. Who is Eligible for Juvenile Court? • Some states have minimum ages: 6, 8, or 10 • The majority of states have no minimum age • Even in these states, there may be a minimum age to be placed in secure detention • West Virginia: 10 for boys, 12 for girls • More severe punishment for older juveniles.

7. Who is Eligible for Juvenile Court? • All states have a maximum age after which the juvenile court must release its jurisdiction. • 33 states: Up to Age 20 • A Few States: Up to Age 24

8. Who is Eligible for Adult Prosecution? • In 38 states, age cutoff is 18 • In 16 states, age cutoff is 17 • In a few states, it is 15 • This means that when a person turns this age, he or she is automatically prosecuted in adult court. • However, younger people can be prosecuted in adult court.

9. Who is Eligible for Adult Prosecution? • 23 states, no minimum age IF the crime is sufficiently severe • In other states, age ranges from 10 to 15. • We will discuss later how these younger offenders can be prosecuted as adults.

10. When are Young People Committing Crimes • Most Adults who commit crimes do so around 10:00 p.m. • Most children or juveniles who commit crimes do so between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. on school days • This is the hour right after school.

11. What Type of Crimes Are Young People Committing? • 24%: Crimes against persons • 17% Simple Battery • 39% Property Crimes • 12% Illegal Drugs • 25% Crimes Against Public Order • Disorderly Conduct • Obstruction of Law Enforcement

12. How Juvenile Courts Handle Offenders • Doctrine of “Parens Patriae,” in which Court is “In Loco Parentis” for child whose parents cannot control. • Again, idea has been to treat and rehabilitate. • Punishment secondary consideration

13. How Juvenile Courts Handle Offenders • Probation • Graduated sanctions • Community Service • Suspension of Drivers’ License • Restitution • Mandatory Counseling • Short-Term Detention • Group Homes

14. CLAYTON COUNTY JUVENILE JUSTICE COLLABORATIVE Judge Teske Addressing the Collaborative

15. IMPACT OF CAMPUS POLICE • School Discipline Becomes Criminal Matter • Youth are Stigmatized with Juvenile Records • Zero Tolerance/Zero Evidence • Courts/Probation Overburdened

16. SCHOOL OFFENSE PROTOCOL AGREEMENT • Focused Acts: Affray, DPS, DC, Obstruction • First Offense/Warning • Second Offense/Referral to Workshop • Third Offense/Complaint Filed School Offense Agreement Signed by all Police Chiefs, School Superintendent, Juvenile Judges, DFCS Director, and other partners on July 8, 2004

17. COLLABORATIVE OUTCOME 90.2% Reduction in Complaints Filed on Focused Acts

18. IMPACT OF COLLABORATIVE-BASED INITIATIVES ON RECIDIVISM Reduced caseloads increases the amount of supervision of high risk probationers resulting in reduction in re-offense rates

19. COMPARATIVE DETENTION RATES (2002-04) Detention Reduced By Approximately 44% Since Implementing JDAI Collaborative Programming

20. How Juvenile Courts Handle Offenders • Short-Term Detention • May be pre-adjudicatory or post-adjudicatory • Georgia: Limited to felony or where child has failed graduated sanctions.

21. Graduated Sanctions: Defined by NCJFCJ • A set of dispositional options arrayed along a continuum. • Includes three components: • Programmatic • Structured decision making • Management information component

23. Components

24. Risk/Needs Assessments • The key attributes of objective classification and risk assessment instruments are: • They employ an objective scoring process. • They use items that can be easily and reliably measured, meaning that the results are consistent both across staff and over time as they relate to individual staff members. • They are statistically associated with future criminal behavior, so that the system can accurately identify offenders with different risk levels.

25. Programmatic Component • Immediate sanctions within the community for first-time, non-violent offenders. • Intermediate sanctions with the community for more serious offenders. • Secure care programs for most serious offenders. • Aftercare programs that provide high levels of social control and treatment services.

27. Suggested Program Components: Intake • Case handling mechanisms: • intake hearings/conferences ; alternative diversion such as teen court, neighborhood accountability boards, or mediation programs. 2. Immediate sanctions: • restitution, community service; educational programs (e.g., shoplifters, substance abuse education); victim impact panels or victim-offender mediation. • Intervention for high-risk/needs youth: • Divert but need supervision and treatment. • Specialized services for diverted youth with SA , ED, or MH problems.

28. Suggested Programmatic Components:Detention • One or more community-based programs designed specifically as alternatives to secure detention such as Home Detention (with or without electronic monitoring), • Day/Evening Reporting Center, or Community Service work crews. • One or more residential placement resources such as shelter care.

29. Suggested Program Components: Disposition • 1. A range of supervision/control options, primarily community-based,organized into four or five levels of increasing restrictiveness. These levels should include: • probation, with differential levels of supervision based on risk; • intensive probation with specialized caseloads, or tracking program, or • advocate program, or day treatment/day reporting program; • group homes, or treatment foster care, or wrap-around services or short term, intensive residential program (e.g., wilderness program); and • access to residential treatment facilities for mental health, substance abuse, or severe behavioral problems;

30. Disposition Component Continued 2. One or more of the above community-based programs should be designed specifically as an alternative to secure correctional placement. 3. Two or more of the above community-based programs should be designed specifically for a special needs population such as females, drug offenders, gang-involved youth, or sex offenders 4. Youth at all levels o f supervision and control should have access to a wide range of services (e.g., GED, alternative schools), vocational training, life and social skills training, and family-oriented interventions. 5. One or more programs should be a product of inter-agency collaboration in terms of funding, administration, and/or operation

31. Suggested Immediate Sanctions Early interventions targeting non-chronic offenders • Curfews • Restitution/Community Service Programs • Mandated groups (shoplifters, SA) • Family Group Conferences • Victim Impact Panels • Victim-Offender Mediation • Mentoring • Teen Court

32. Suggested Intermediate Sanctions • For juveniles who continue to offend following immediate interventions, youth who have committed more serious felony offenses, and some violent offenders who need supervision, structure, and monitoring but not necessarily institutionalization. • Intensive Supervision • Day Treatment • House Arrest/Electronic Monitoring • Treatment Programs (MST, IFI, etc).

33. How Juvenile Courts Handle Offenders • Long-term Detention • Commitment to Juvenile Corrections Division • Designated Felon: 1 to 5 years in secure juvenile detention • Available for very severe crimes • Kidnapping, arson, aggravated assault by child at least 13 • Bringing weapon to school • Serious drug offenses

34. How Juvenile Courts Handle Offenders • Other Juvenile Court Powers: • Power of Contempt to make parents and guardians comply. • Mandated family counseling or drug treatment

35. How Adult Criminal Courts Handle Young Offenders • Waiver: Available in All States. • 45 States – discretionary with judge based on child’s record, severity of offense, and need to protect community • In some states, mandatory based on type of crime

36. How Adult Criminal Courts Handle Young Offenders • Exclusion or Automatic Jurisdiction in Adult Court • Mississippi: While age for adult prosecution is 18, all felonies committed by 17 year olds are prosecuted in adult court. • Georgia: Seven deadly sins, is committed by child at least 13, are prosecuted in adult court.

37. Competence • “Formal” Competence • Decisional Capability • Developmental Immaturity • Tom Grisso, Juveniles’ Competence To Stand Trial.

38. Sentencing of Young Offenders in Adult Court • Adult Crime = Adult Time. • Differences in burglary for juvenile and adult sentence, for example • Blended Sentencing: • Virginia: Adult Court could order juvenile sentence, adult sentence, or suspend adult sentence if juvenile sentence is successfully completed.

39. Sentencing of Young Offenders in Adult Court • Where are they kept? • Georgia: Kept in juvenile facility until age 17, when they are transferred to an adult facility designed for younger offenders

41. Problems with Prosecuting Children As Adults • An example: Sex Offenses

42. Normal Sexual Development In the first year of life • Most children discover the pleasure of genital- self stimulation From two to six years of age • Children may begin to engage in sexual play with peers. Penile erection, by rubbing in female preschoolers, sexual exploration games, touching and rubbing of one’s genitals, exhibitionism, voyeurism, use of dirty language and flirtatious behaviors have been described in normal children 2-6 years of age.

43. Normal Sexual Development • Middle Childhood Sexual interest during the middle childhood years waxes and wanes with the degree of sexual stimulation and sexually sensitizing experiences

44. Growth of Healthy Sexuality • Intimacy learned through interaction with peers • Learning personal roles in and out of one’s family • Changing ideas as a result of puberty • Sexual feelings find an appropriate place in one’s life • Learning societal rules • Learning about reproduction

45. What Is Sexual Abuse? • “A sexual offense involves the use of greater age, force, prestige, intelligence or other source of power to coerce another person into a sexual act to which they might not otherwise consent” (Breer, 1987 )

46. What Is A Sexual Offense ? The offender uses his/her greater power to exploit his/her victims Criteria : • Age • Force • Power • Consent • Place

47. What Is A Sexual Offender ? • A part of the sexual gratification obtained by the sexual perpetrator arises from controlling, dominating, and/or humiliating the sexual partner. (Breer, 1987 )

48. Offending vs Experimentation Greater than 3 year age difference Sexual involvement with pre-pubertal child Difference in status and sophistication between the sexual partners

49. Offending vs Experimentation Exploitation and control are features of offending and not experimentation. Force clearly identifies an offender. Sexuality with focus of control, domination, and /or humiliation is not a characteristic of experimentation

50. Guidelines for Assessing Sexual Behavior • What are the power positions of the participants ? • Is force or intimidation involved ? • Is ritual or sadistic abuse involved ? • Was secrecy involved ? • How developmentally appropriate are the sexual acts ? Sgroi (1988)