Youth Legal 101 Presentation to the Board of Charles County Commissioners September 1, 2020 Maryland Office of the Public Defender
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Learning Objectives When it started 1. Basics Who it impacts Where it operates What it does 2. Best Practices Raise the Age Shrink the System Positive Youth Development Close to Home Police Free Schools
HISTORY OF YOUTH LEGAL SYSTEM 1855 1902 1967 1999 2005 House of Refuge JUVENILE COURT DJS FOUNDED SCANDAL CONSENT DECREE Opens on Frederick Creates system of Dept. of Juvenile Services 3 youth prisons closed Md. Enters consent decree Avenue in Baltimore magistrates to hear created to take over and senior offices fired with DOJ over deplorable juvenile matters youth prisons. over widespread abuse. conditions of youth jails & prisons.
HISTORY OF YOUTH LEGAL SYSTEM 2007 2012 2016 2018-9 2020 CHILD KILLED DISCRIMINATION SCANDAL CLOSURES $272 MILLION Staff at Bowling Brook Report shows that across Baltimore Sun reports on Victor Cullen closes after DJS is asking to spend murder Isiah Simmons III. Maryland arrests down significant problems at staff failures cause riot, another $272 million on but detention up. Victor Cullen, Glenn Mills closed amidst jail & prison construction Opens 2 years later as discorporate treatment of abuse scandal. Silver Oak. young women & more
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Other Hispanic Black Maryland’s racial & ethnic demographics White 11
Referrals to Hispanic Youth Legal System White Black 12
Referrals to Hispanic Youth Legal White System in Charles County Black 13 Black White Hispanic
Hispanic White Black Youth Out-of- Home Placements 14
"There are a lot of kids who don't belong here … especially girls. ” Sam Abed, Secretary Department of Juvenile Services 15
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State run youth prison State run youth jail 17
How much does it cost to incarcerate a girl at Waxters for one year? ▫ $50,000 ▫ $75,000 ▫ $150,000 ▫ $250,000 ▫ $400,000 18
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Pre- Court Process: Discretion Police Diversion Intake The JOR is then referred DJS has a dedicated Charge kids for something to any diversionary intake officer that would be a crime if program. Three options: they were an adult on a Close at intake Juvenile Offense Report • If accepted and Resolve Informally (JOR) • succesfully completed, Forward to Court They can release the kid • the charges stop there. to their parent, or ask DJS to detain them. 20
Juvenile Court in a Nutshell Trial Sentencing Post-Disposition Called “disposition ” a If a child is found Called “adjudication ” at judge or magistrate then delinquent, they are trial rather than guilty/not decides if a child is either placed on guilty the court finds the delinquent or not probation or committed child involved or not delinquent. & sent to an out of home involved. placement. Sentencing usually Trials usually happen happens 3-4 weeks after within 60 days of a case trial. being brought. 21
Level I includes all programs where youth reside in a community setting & attend community schools. Level II includes programs where educational programming is provided on-site & youth movement and freedom is restricted primarily by staff monitoring and supervising. Level III programs provide the highest level of security by augmenting staff supervision with physical attributes of the facility, i.e., locks, bars and fences. 22
2/3 Kids taken out of their homes in Maryland are there for misdemeanors or technical violations of probation
Youth Complaints in Maryland 60,000 Statewide there has 50,000 been a 60% decline in youth complaints in the last 10 years. 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 - 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
$273,513,315 per year DJS annual operating budget 47.7% youth jails & prisons $150 million give or take 15% on community supervision No mentorship program in Charles County 25
Bad Decision, Not Bad Kids 2/3 A young person arrested at age 16 for robbery has The majority the same Only one-third of of serious felony adolescents with an likelihood of adolescent offenders arrest record go on report very low levels of to an adult arrest; arrest at 24.5 years old offending three years two-thirds do not. as a peer with no juvenile after court involvement. record. Mulvey et al., 2010 Reforming Juvenile Justice, Footnote 5 Pg 25 26 Blumstein and Nakamura, 2009 .
Kids do dumb stuff And most grow out of it on their own. 27
This is a brain on puberty. • • Thrill seeking Subject to peer U.S. Supreme Court says kids pressure are different in: • Act without • • Sensitive to Miller v. Alabama planning reward • JDB v. N. Carolina • Roper v. Simmons • Cannot foresee consequences 28
Racism (not just implicit bias) is real Over Policing Unfairness at Arrest, Charging, & Sentencing Fines & Fees 29
Think about a time between the ages of 7-17 when you did one of the following….
Congratulations! You have been found involved. You are now on probation .
Think about a time between the ages of 7-17 when you did one of the following….
Congratulations Girl Boy You violated probation. Youth Center Youth Prison
Between the ages of 7- Yes? 17 did you You are kicked ever.. out of school & sent to a Youth Prison
Dangers of Detaining Young People • Interrupts and prevents brain maturation • Increases recidivism • Exposure to negative peers • Pulls kids deeper into system • Increases mental illness • Interrupts schooling
We Know What Works • Keep youth in their communities & near family • Help youth build new skills and stay out of trouble in the long term. • Multi-systemic therapy • Family functional therapy • Culturally competent service providers • Wraparound Services • Education & Vocational opportunity 36
Raise the Age • Raise the floor (stop charging 7 year olds) and the ceiling (end charging kids as adults). • Children are different from adults, we must treat them with the care & support they deserve. 37
Shrink the System • Increase diversion & limit discretion to charge. • Ban out of home placement for all but the most serious, violent offenses. 38
Positive Youth Development • Limit probation to finite time periods. • Provide opportunities to build positive relationships with adults. • Help young people pursue their interests, participate in constructive recreational, and educational activities and contribute in meaningful ways to their communities. 39
Close to Home • Close large congregant state-run prisons - they make us less safe, do not work & are inordinately expensive. • Establish small-community based options that provide intensive services only to the most high-risk young people. 40
Police Free Schools • Police in schools criminalize normal adolescent behavior. • Investing in developmentally appropriate alternatives to police in schools prevents children from being pushed into the School to Prison Pipeline while also providing solutions to educators. 41
School Police Are students safer without them?
1950’s – First school police programs created in Flint, MI and Los Angeles, CA following Great Migration and school integration 1970’s - 80’s – War on Drugs 1990’s – Zero Tolerance approach to crime & student discipline 1999 – Columbine school shooting → $750 million federal COPS grant puts 6,500 more police in schools nationwide Origins and 2013 – Sandy Hook school shooting → expansion of COPS program; 4X as much federal funding for school police vs. school counselors Purpose 2018 – Great Mills shooting → Safe to Learn Act creates $10 million/year fund for SROs. 1 officer for every 4 schools in state. The stated intent behind putting police in schools is to address instances of extreme violence /shootings and keep students and educators safe. ACLU, Bullies in Blue: The Origins and Consequences of School Policing (2017), https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/aclu_bullies_in_blue_4_11_17_final.pdf Maryland Center for School Safety: Annual Report, 2019, https://schoolsafety.maryland.gov/Documents/Reports-Docs/School%20Safety%20Annual%20Report-2019.pdf
No Safety Benefits No national or Maryland study has found that the presence of school police decreases violent incidents at school A 2018 study of 200 school shootings found that school police successfully intervened in only 2 One study found that increasing school police officers did not result in a decrease in any offense type Black students, in particular, report that police presence in schools makes them feel less safe, given police violence against communities of color Chongmin Na & Denise Gottfredson, Police Officers in School: Effects on School Crime & the Processing of Offending Behaviors, Justice Quarterly (2011) Anya Kamanetz , Why There’s a Push to Get Police Out of Schools, National Public Radio (June 23, 2020)
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