Latest Posts

Pop Quiz

Posted in Juvenile on Thursday July 15 2010 @ 7:14pm

Q: How many full-time psychiatrists does the state of New York employ to treat the over 800 children in its juvenile justice system?

A: Zero.

See Federal Oversight for Troubled N.Y. Youth Prisons, Nicholas Confessore, NYT (July 14, 2010), and For 800 Youth Jailed by State, Not One Full-Time Psychiatrist, Julie Bosman, NYT (February 11, 2010).

Score one for Legal Aid and the New York City Family Court for fixing this.

See?

Posted in Juvenile on Saturday December 19 2009 @ 6:05pm

As if to prove our point that the focus on white-collar crime has made the WJS soft on crime (!), the Wall Street Journal has decided the system is too tough on juveniles, and for what? Tons of recidivism? Spending enormous amounts of money on a useless machine?

Their solution -- getting defrocked business leaders to donate their old suits to troubled teens looking to change their image. But seriously, see New York Can Do Better By Juvenile Offenders, Elizabeth Glazer, WSJ (December 19, 2009).

We love to say Toldya so!

I Don't FEEL Tardy!

Posted in Juvenile on Tuesday September 01 2009 @ 6:12pm

School is back, and with it the avoidance thereof: truancy!

Courts have taken it upon themselves to not only attempt to enforce truancy laws, but also combat the underlying no-showitis. Summit County Juvenile Court in Akron gets an A for effort in truancy prevention.

According to her message on the court's website, Judge Linda Tucci Teodosio believes the Juvenile Court should be more than a mechanism of punishment for youth offenders who enter the juvenile justice system. The Juvenile Court will hold these children responsible for their actions, but the court should also seek ways to introduce the proper programming and guidance for these children to turn their lives around and become productive members of society.

A host of outreach initiatives help the court move toward that goal. Billboards, community curfew information (ignorance of the law is no excuse!), and informational brochures help children and parents learn the ins and outs of juvenile court, teen court, traffic court, and probation.

See also the National Truancy Prevention Association. NTPA declared August National Truancy Prevention Month -- guess we're a little late!

Hot for Truants

Posted in Juvenile on Tuesday January 13 2009 @ 8:46pm

As David Lee Roth once said, "I don't FEEL tardy!"

According to the Washington State Court of Appeals, it doesn't matter whether you feel like a truant or not, you are still entitled to counsel. Not only that, the right kicks in at the point of your first hearing. (We wonder whether it matters if you show up?)

See Wash. Court Rules that Truants Entitled to Lawyer, Tim Klass, AP (January 13, 2009).

p.s. It's not snowing *that* much, wake up!!!

Inside Japan's Juvenile Court

Posted in Juvenile on Thursday October 09 2008 @ 9:31pm

In Japan, criminal cases are open to the public but other cases -- juvenile, divorce, probate -- are not. These cases are all part of family court. The theory is that confidentiality allows for more uninhibited discussion among participants.

This is similar to our theory of confidentiality in mediation. Our theory of confidentiality in juvenile court exists to "protect juveniles from stigmatization for the rest of their lives for acts committed while they were children." (Source: Confidentiality, NCJFCJ.)

The exception to the confidentiality rule was a mock juvenile hearing, which took place as part of Law Day.

The mock trial and surrounding hoopla brought interesting Japanese court statistics to light:

In 2007, family courts handled 194,650 juvenile cases

32.8% of juvenile offenses involve theft

20.5% were traffic cases

16.8% of the cases were for death or injury involving vehicles

0.6% were for "serious" crimes

Japanese Law Day starts October 1 and lasts a week. According to one report, the observance began in 1960, and "commemorates the day the Jury Law went into effect in 1928. Japan had the jury system for 15 years before it was halted in 1943 during World War II. In 1960, the Cabinet designated that the week be used to promote the importance of the law, although October 1 is not recognized as a notional holiday."

And, for anyone who hasn't been paying attention, jury trials will return to Japan soon -- stay tuned!

See Juvenile Court Opens Up for a Day, Setsuko Kamiya, Japan Times (October 10, 2008).

All Grown Up or Still a Juvenile? Ohio Case Decides Issue

Posted in Juvenile on Tuesday September 30 2008 @ 6:04am

Putting aside, for the moment, the relative maturity of average 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds, when does a juvenile stop being a juvenile?

Here's the timeline:

Age 15: adjudicated as a delinquent; put on parole.

Age 17: violated parole.

Age 18: parole violation hearing finally takes place. The delinquent participates without a parent, guardian, custodian, or counsel present.

At the parole violation hearing, is the kid a kid?

Yes, says the Supreme Court of Ohio. Thus, he may not waive his right to counsel without consultation with a parent, etc., or attorney. Even though the waiver may have been knowing, voluntary, and intelligent, he was not 21 "and the court was exercising jurisdiction on a matter related to his prior adjudication as a delinquent child."

The dissent (J. O'Connor, joined by CJ. Moyer and J. Cupp) found that the majority's reasoning conflicted with existing statutes and juvenile court rules.

What does it all mean for Ohio courts? We've seen some messy, messy juvenile case files. Clean them up! Pay attention to the status of offenders, timelines, etc. Pay attention to basic plea requirements -- knowing, voluntary, and intelligent. Ask questions, look behind the nodding head to find out what's really going on. Finally, courts must ensure that the right to counsel is honored.

The case is 2007-0728, In re Andrew, Slip Op. No. 2008-Ohio-4791. See also the opinion summary.

Safer Havens

Posted in Juvenile on Monday September 29 2008 @ 12:10pm

Earlier we noted Nebraska's difficulty with its safe haven law which, as written, does not specify that children who may be dropped off at hospitals be of any particular age.

Now the question is: what to do with the older children?

While many say that it is too traumatic on older children, at least one juvenile court expert in Nebraska says older children should be allowed. Listen to Neb. Officials: Parents Misusing Infant Drop-Off Law, Morning Edition, NPR (September 29, 2008).

It has become clear that many of the older children dropped off (though, not necessarily the ones in the 9-out-of-10 story) had serious problems, and the families were rebuffed by the usual suspects. See Children Left at Nebraska Hospitals: More Details, Judith Graham, Triage, Chicago Tribune (September 28, 2008).

Better that we read a story about a man who dropped off 9 of his 10 children than a man who murdered 9 of his 10 children. Older, non-adoptable children are abandoned in some respects (if not outright) all the time. They run away from their umpteenth foster home, make heroic escapes from abusive homes, raise their younger siblings, are preyed on by gang leaders and others who do not have their best interests at heart, and get looked at funny by shopkeepers, all as they try to cope with school and regular teenager-ness.

It's time to examine what's more traumatic: becoming part of the system (at any age), or giving parents and teens the support they need?

Resources for Ohio's Children

Posted in Juvenile on Wednesday July 23 2008 @ 7:10am

One of whom is falling asleep on our lap as we type...(some of our most inspired work is dictated by her).

The Supreme Court of Ohio has posted resources from the Ohio Summit on Children, which took place in Columbus in May. This is a nice selection of materials on child welfare, county data, courts, collaboration tools, a report on education, summit materials (including videos), and links to pertinent websites.

Too many of these types of events go off without a bang. Reports gather dust, people get back to their busy day jobs, and good intentions become pavement. The Looking Forward section of the site lays out post-conference plans for the future.

Kudos to the team who put this together! May others be so inspired.

Tattoo Regret

Posted in Juvenile on Saturday July 05 2008 @ 8:51am

Here's one reason to avoid getting your forehead tattooed: you might regret it later.

Once upon a time, an angry young man caught up in the juvenile court system got some naughty mean anti-court words inked onto his forehead. Perhaps it seemed like a good idea at the time. But no more! Now he's undergoing an extensive removal process.

See Fuck Court. Horrible Tattoos (July 5, 2008).

Thanks to Tom, fresh from his fjordic Nordic soujourn, for passing this along!

Kansan Juveniles Have Right to Jury

Posted in Juvenile on Saturday June 21 2008 @ 8:12am

Hundreds of retried cases, scads of summonses, umpteen questions for prospective jurors, and a higher caseload for courts -- these are just a few of the scenarios courts have to look forward to after this week's Kansas Supreme Court decision giving juveniles the right to a jury trial.

The Kansas high court interpreted the phrase "all prosecutions" as it appears in sec. 10 of the state's bill of rights to include prosecutions in juvenile cases.

Is the juvenile system different? Certainly, when it was invented over 100 years ago in Chicago, that was the idea. Juveniles were "offenders," not "defendants." The goal was rehabilitation (or possibly "habilitation").

"Tough-on-crime" policies of more recent decades led to massive transfer of juveniles to "adult" court. We were warned about super-predators. The age of majority gets younger all the time.

Chief Justice McFarland based her dissent on these differences, noting that "[t]he majority contends that the current juvenile system has changed to be more in line with the adult criminal system" in terms of policy goals, language in the juvenile code, determinative sentencing, and elimination of protective confidentiality.

Nevertheless, Chief Justice McFarland still believes in the juvenile system: "[t]he experiment has not failed. The majority has overlooked the most significant features of the juvenile system that distinguish it from the adult system–features that promote protection of the public while not only preserving, but furthering, the individualized, protective, rehabilitative character unique to the juvenile system."

True, but the differences between juveniles and adults and the melding of the two systems are precisely why juveniles must be afforded constitutional protections. As the NCJJ puts it: "[a]s juveniles increasingly face the risk of adult criminal sentencing or confinement in adult correctional facilities, one should expect to see increasing protections, such as jury trials, in juvenile courts." "Juvenile Delinquents' Right to a Jury Trial," Linda Szymanski, NCJJ Snapshot (September 2002), downloadable from the National Juvenile Defender Center's Comparative State Data collection.

The case is In the Matter of L. M., No. 96.197. Some very interesting discussion of juvenile sentencing.

See Court: Juveniles Have Right to Jury Trial, Mike Belt, Lawrence Journal-World (June 21, 2008).

Last 5 Posts >>

court-o-rama.org

the least dangerous blog

Categories