Photoessay #1183 - Juvenile Justice

Spent the afternoon at the Juvenile Justice Center (poisonous and rundown as it is) doing court support. Again, so impressed with the juvenile justice system and what it offers for families and kids. Despite big budget cuts and more to come. I know that families really want to keep their kids clear from the police and court system. But those overworked folks down there really care about our youth and can give parents some stronger tools to help their sons and daughters accountable.

We do many counter-intuitive things at Parent Group. Things that sound like the very opposite of what you should do. One is to become involved with the juvenile justice system. In fact, try to refuse diversion (first time offenders can meet with community boards with limited consequences - and not much followup) and go directly into the juvenile justice criminal system. Probation is what you want!

Today was a case of a 17 year old young man who had participated in some borderline domestic violence against his parents. Soon, he crossed the line and the Parent Group team advised the parent to call the police. A few days later, he was picked up by the police. The parent refused to take him home at two hearings related to the case citing personal safety. So he had to stay in juvenile detention for about 10 days. I'm sure that they don't really appreciate this, they would like to get kids out of there. A plea deal was set for misdemeanor harassment. I went to the plea and disposition today. The bottom line is that the matter was kept as misdemeanor rather than felonies. Could have gone the other way because a knife was involved. But they didn't write that part up. So now there's 8 months of court-ordered probation, drug and alcohol assessment with order to comply with recommendations plus court order to participate with StepUp, a really good anger management program. Great tools which will benefit this young man a lot.

But the court appearance was even better. The presiding judge did not treat this as a rubber stamp. He engaged the young man with respect and really showed interest. Was he pleading guilty just to get out of jail; had he really committed the act? Yes, the young man answered. He invited the young man to speak to the court. The overall tone was measured concern.

I really appreciate the juvenile justice system in our county. You want to participate!

Photo taken from a blog about Gila Arizona, used without permission