Many States’ Juvenile Justice Laws Trending Back in a Progressive Direction

trendsinJJreport[1]A jump in serious juvenile crime in the late 1980s and early 1990s led to state laws that moved away from the traditional emphasis on rehabilitation in the juvenile justice system toward tougher, more punitive treatment of youth. During the past decade, however, juvenile crime rates have declined, and state legislatures are rebalancing to yield better results for kids at lower cost.

Today, there is more and better information available to policymakers on the causes of juvenile crime and what can be done to prevent it. This includes im­portant information about neurobiological and psychosocial factors and the effects these factors have on development and competency of adolescents. The research has contributed to recent legislative trends to distin­guish juvenile from adult offenders, restore the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, and adopt sci­entific screening and assessment tools to structure decision-making and identify needs of juvenile of­fenders. Competency statutes and policies have be­come more research-based, and youth interventions are evidence-based across a range of programs and services. Other legislative actions have increased due process protections for juveniles, reformed de­tention and addressed racial disparities in juvenile justice systems.

The National Conference of State Legislatures has produced the report “Juvenile Justice Trends in State Legislation, 2001-2011” illustrating the trends in juvenile justice enactments over the past decade.

The report states:

Research shows that adolescent brains do not fully develop until about age 25, and the immature, emotional and impul­sive nature characteristic of adolescents makes them more susceptible to committing crimes. Studies also have shown that juveniles who commit crimes or engage in socially deviant behavior are not neces­sarily destined to be adult criminals. This research has provided the basis for widespread state legisla­tive policy reforms in juvenile justice systems.

Currently, 47% of states have outlawed execution of juveniles (and 53% have not!). In 2010, the US Supreme Court abolished life sentences without parole for youth convicted of crimes other than homicide. Twelve states currently forbid life sentences without parole or have no youths serving such sentences.

One trend over the past decade is raising the age of jurisdiction for juvenile courts. Thirty-eight states set the maximum age at 17, but 10 states still treat 16-year-olds as adults and New York and North Carolina can try youths of only age 15 as adults. Seven years ago Connecticut moved more than 10,000 cases a year from adult court to juvenile court by raising the age of jurisdiction from 16 to 18.

Ten states now address mental competency and insanity in their juvenile statutes. In 2005 Oregon allowed juvenile insanity defense. Georgia requires a youth be represented by a lawyer when being evaluated for competency. In 2010, Iowa required a legal proceeding be suspended if the child was ordered treatment in a mental facility.

In Michigan a juvenile court must appoint an attorney to represent an indigent youngster, and most states will appoint counsel for an indigent youth, but the way that is done, the fees and the application process vary from state to state.

A major trend over the past decade is prevention statutes that divert non-violent offenders away from prison. These tend to be evidence-based practices that clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of treating and rehabilitating a juvenile in the community rather than in the pokey. Multi-systemic therapy, family functional therapy and aggression replacement training are evidence-based interven­tions in place of incarceration today in Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Washington.

Pre-trial diversion programs, such as Redeploy Illinois have also proved effective. Savings from fewer commitments are returned to the communities for treatment programs. In 2011, Ohio law ruled that 45% of the savings from closing corrections facilities be invested in community services, and Texas tasked its Youth Commission with increasing community-based juvenile offender programs statewide.

More than 65% of the two million youngsters arrested each year suffer from some mental disorder, so state policies have begun to focus on proper screening, assessment and treatment of young offenders. Washington State set a small sales tax to fund therapeutic courts. Colorado now allows a 90-day sentence suspension for mental treatment. Minnesota and Nevada require statewide mental health screening for all in the juvenile justice system, and Texas now insists that probation departments do mental health and substance abuse screening.

State legislatures are now trying to deal with the over-representation of minorities in the juvenile justice system. And many states are making fresh efforts to deal with the 100,000 kids released from confinement each year. California and Washington have eased healthcare accessibility for re-entering youth.

In addition, 10 states increased the confidentiality of juvenile records. Delaware, North Carolina and Vermont established automatic destruction of non-violent juvenile records, and Colorado, Illinois, Ohio and Washington created procedures for requesting juvenile records be expunged.

Because young females are the fastest-growing part of the juvenile justice system, representing as much as 34% of the incarcerated population in some states, Hawaii, Minnesota, Connecticut, Florida and Oregon now require gender-specific juvenile programs.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *