News Summary
August 7 – 20, 2010
Models for Change Mentioned
Daily Herald (IL)
‘Letters: Community-based care vital for youth’ – August 16, 2010
The new report on the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice by Models for Change, as stated in the Aug. 3 editorial "Recommit to serving troubled teens," recommends better community-based and after care and acknowledges the role of families to help youth exiting prison. But there has been no comparable study to address the strategic challenge of our current juvenile system: How to move resources away from the eight large juvenile prisons into multiple, smaller, community-based facilities…
The Baltimore Sun (MD)
‘Opinion: Put more emphasis on programs that deter youth crime’ – August 18, 2010
With regard to The Baltimore Sun editorial "Deterring youth crime" (Aug. 16), the best way to improve the BaltimoreCityJuvenile JusticeCenter is to keep kids out of it. And the best way to do that is to partner with community-based organizations to provide interventions that we know work…
The Pre-Adjudication Coordination & Transition (PACT) center in West Baltimore takes on some of our most troubled youth offenders, keeps them out of danger, keeps them out of lock-up, works with their families, provides crucial resources and supports, and does it all for a fraction of the cost of incarceration. The MacArthur Foundation has recognized it as a national model. But instead of replicating this program—in other parts of Baltimore, or making it available to girls—DJS refuses to fund it. Instead, the agency seeks millions of dollars to build new facilities that we have no reason to believe will be better than the ones we have now…
Pennsylvania Summary
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
‘Slaying case's long delay on youth status called travesty’ – August 08, 2010
Police took nine days to arrest 17-year-old Lance Dempster and charge him as an adult in the 2007 shooting death of a pizza deliveryman in Wilkinsburg…
The Philadelphia Inquirer
‘Letters: 'Sexting' is already a crime in Pennsylvania’ – August 10, 2010
Wednesday's editorial "Juvenile behavior" incorrectly suggests that legislation currently being considered in Harrisburg would criminalize "sexting." Sexting is already a crime in Pennsylvania…
Reading Eagle
‘9 to lose jobs at BerksCountyYouthCenter’ – August 11, 2010
Nine people will lose their jobs at the BerksCountyYouthCenter at the end of the week when a program designed to help juvenile offenders become responsible, law-abiding adults is discontinued…
The Patriot-News (Harrisburg)
‘Letters: SchaffnerYouthCenter closing would be major mistake’ – August 11, 2010
On July 29, DauphinCounty commissioners announced that SchaffnerYouthCenter would be eliminated. I have gone into Schaffner as a summer school teacher and tutor for years…
The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre)
‘Opinion: Pace of case frustratingly slow’ – August 11, 2010
LOST IN THE hubbub of last week’s sentencing of ex-LuzerneCounty commissioner Greg Skrepenak was this discouraging development: another delay in scheduling the public corruption trial of former county judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr…
The Philadelphia Inquirer
‘Editorial: Shouldn't delay justice’ – August 11, 2010
When he was packing kids off to prison, then-Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. was known for dispensing lightning-fast justice. But now comes word that Ciavarella's own corruption trial won't take place until February…
Williamsport Sun-Gazette
‘More than 50 may lose jobs’ – August 12, 2010
After nearly 35 years, indirectly due to Pennsylvania's struggling economy, Laurel Youth Services is facing the closure of its residential and diagnostic units in Blossburg…
The Reporter (Lansdale)
‘Teen waives hearing on rape charges’ – August 16, 2010
An 18-year-old Perkiomen boy has pleaded not guilty to charges he allegedly assaulted two girls in a sexual or indecent manner during separate drinking parties in October…
Erie Times-News
‘Teen accused in Arrington shooting to be tried as an adult’ – August 17, 2010
Larry Lemon, the 18-year-old accused of gunning down another man in front of a convenience store in January, won't get another chance in the juvenile justice system…
Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre)
‘Juvenile justice task force notes good, bad, plans future’ – August 18, 2010
Children no longer go before a judge without an attorney, a new law guarantees restitution to victims of juveniles who had their records expunged and the number of juveniles going into the court system has dropped…
Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre
‘DA: Juvenile cases will be evaluated individually’ – August 18, 2010
As former Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. prepares for his federal corruption trial next February, a task force of county officials and state advocates is overhauling the juvenile court system he tarnished with a decade of unconstitutional rulings, terse hearings and harsh sentences…
National Summary
KARK-TV (AR)
‘Praise for Progress of Arkansas' Juvenile Justice System’ – August 7, 2010
Arkansas' juvenile justice system is getting applause for making strides…
The Shreveport Times (LA)
‘Juvenile justice: Schools key to success’ – August 8, 2010
Shreveport attorney Clay Walker recently was honored as an outstanding national leader in juvenile justice reform, one of only four people recognized by the National Juvenile Justice Network. Walker is deputy public defender for the state and director of Juvenile Defender Services at the Louisiana Public Defender Board…
Hartford Courant (CT)
‘Letters: Kids Tried As Juveniles Are Less Likely To Repeat Crimes’ – August 9, 2010
A letter writer asserted that the "statewide cause of safer teen driving will be better served" if the law requires the young driver charged in a January school bus crash to be tried as an adult [Aug. 4, "Teen's Trial Shouldn't Be Moved"]…
The Florida Times-Union
‘Experts want less jail, more treatment for errant Georgia juveniles’ – August 9, 2010
A parade of judges, prosecutors and children's advocates told a Senate subcommittee Monday that the state needs to revise the law on juveniles to shift from putting mild cases behind bars to putting their entire families in treatment…
The Washington Post – Online
‘Youth facility most overcrowded: Group’ – August 10, 2010
The Cheltenham Youth Facility was the most overcrowded of Maryland's largest secure detention centers between April and July, the state's juvenile justice watchdog says in a new report…
The Baltimore Sun (MD)
‘Federal monitoring of long-troubled city youth lockup to end’ – August 11, 2010
Federal monitoring of the long-troubled Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center is likely to end soon, state juvenile services officials said Wednesday, making it the third youth facility in Maryland to be lifted from such oversight in little more than two years…
Columbus Telegram (NE)
‘Committee focusing on minority contact disparity’ – August 13, 2010
A disproportionate number of “minority contacts” within Platte County’s juvenile justice system has prompted one group to reach out to the Hispanic community to help curb the problem…
Lansing State Journal (MI)
‘O'Brien: Life without parole is wrong penalty for juveniles’ – August 15, 2010
Did you know that if a juvenile is found guilty as an adult in Michigan the current mandatory sentence is life in prison without parole?...
The Baltimore Sun (MD)
‘Editorial: Deterring youth crime’ – August 16, 2010
It's certainly welcome news that conditions in the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center have improved enough to persuade the U.S. Department of Justice to lift federal oversight of the youth lockup it has held under scrutiny since 2007…
New York Daily News
‘Youth detention shift’ – August 18, 2010
Twenty years ago, Alex Mejia spent two years as a teenage inmate at Bridges Juvenile Center on charges of drug possession, robbery and auto theft. He had turned to the streets as a way to try and ease the burden on his mother after his father left…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
‘Opinion: Rethink how we punish juveniles’ – August 18, 2010
The desire for revenge that clouds our judgment in dealing with juvenile offenders must end.The original juvenile justice system was based on a rehabilitative model that offered treatment to young offenders. But rehabilitation was replaced by retribution in the 1990s as a result of a staggering increase in juvenile crime…
Ventura County Star (CA)
‘Editorial: Second chance for young lifers’ – August 18, 2010
We support legislation that allows for the review of cases involving juveniles sentenced to life without parole after 10 years, potentially allowing some of them to receive a new sentence of 25 years to life…
The Baltimore Sun (MD)
‘Letters: Social programs only part of juvenile justice solution’ – August 20, 2010
I found Sonia Kumar's letter ("Improving Juvenile Justice," Readers Respond, Aug. 18) to be very interesting, but very one-sided in believing that more programs will improve a juvenile's situation. In part this is true, but I believe that a major part of the problem is the lack of facilities, as there are those children that do need to be removed from society, to protect other children and society…
Top Stories – Models for Change Mentioned
Letters: Community-based care vital for youth
Daily Herald (IL)
August 16, 2010
The new report on the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice by Models for Change, as stated in the Aug. 3 editorial "Recommit to serving troubled teens," recommends better community-based and after care and acknowledges the role of families to help youth exiting prison. But there has been no comparable study to address the strategic challenge of our current juvenile system: How to move resources away from the eight large juvenile prisons into multiple, smaller, community-based facilities.
The failure to prepare another key component of juvenile care - a strategic plan for the resources needed to support youth in returning to their communities, staying in school and getting critical psychiatric outpatient treatment - undermines the credibility of the planning process. As advocates for children and families, The Child Care Association of Illinois echoes the report's call for rehabilitative and treatment services for youth and the important role these services can play in helping youth create a more positive future.
Additionally, the new report helpfully highlights the complex needs of juvenile justice youth and highlights the fact that the Illinois system must receive additional resources and support from the Illinois General Assembly and governor.
Moreover, this report can serve as a good foundation for the discussions on mental health services for youth as the proposed merger with the Department of Children and Family Services goes forward. However, critical strategic planning to deliver the right resources and to deliver community-based care must be launched to have a viable road map for the future of juvenile care. Those missing pieces leave the transition as complicated as ever.
Marge Berglind
President
Child Care Association of Illinois
Opinion: Put more emphasis on programs that deter youth crime
The Baltimore Sun (MD)
August 18, 2010
With regard to The Baltimore Sun editorial "Deterring youth crime" (Aug. 16), the best way to improve the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center is to keep kids out of it. And the best way to do that is to partner with community-based organizations to provide interventions that we know work. No one knows these kids better than the families and communities they come from—and no one has more incentive to see them succeed.
We are setting up these kids, and the Department of Juvenile Services, to fail when we expect a centralized state agency to provide individualized solutions without engaging local partners. Until we start investing in community programs instead of facilities that simply warehouse kids, we have no right to expect more.
The Pre-Adjudication Coordination & Transition (PACT) center in West Baltimore takes on some of our most troubled youth offenders, keeps them out of danger, keeps them out of lock-up, works with their families, provides crucial resources and supports, and does it all for a fraction of the cost of incarceration. The MacArthur Foundation has recognized it as a national model. But instead of replicating this program—in other parts of Baltimore, or making it available to girls—DJS refuses to fund it. Instead, the agency seeks millions of dollars to build new facilities that we have no reason to believe will be better than the ones we have now.
The Female Intervention Team unit—an all-female juvenile probation unit housed at BCJJC—is another missed opportunity. At one time, Baltimore's FIT unit was a national model for innovation in juvenile service delivery. It creatively responded to the unique challenges of girls in crisis—whose needs and delinquency patterns differ from boys. But the program is a shadow of what it once was, felled by budget cuts and the loss of other community programs.
It is not hard to figure out the right thing to do—but it's hard to do it when success is measured by facilities, not kids.
Sonia Kumar, Baltimore
The writer is an attorney with the ACLU of Maryland Juvenile Justice Initiative
Top Stories - Pennsylvania
Slaying case's long delay on youth status called travesty
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Jonathan D. Silver
August 08, 2010
Police took nine days to arrest 17-year-old Lance Dempster and charge him as an adult in the 2007 shooting death of a pizza deliveryman in Wilkinsburg.
His lawyers took more than two years to request that his case be moved to juvenile court.
That petition -- essentially asking the court to treat Mr. Dempster like a child open to treatment instead of as a grown-up potentially facing incarceration -- has yet to be heard by a judge.
And by now so much time has passed that the petition is effectively moot.
Last month, nearly 31/2 years after his arrest in April 2007, Mr. Dempster turned 21 -- the age at which juvenile court's authority ends. A hearing on the juvenile court petition is scheduled for Sept. 22. How the court and Mr. Dempster's attorney will resolve his situation is unclear.
"It's a travesty. It's horrendous," social worker Randolph A. Matuscak said. Mr. Matuscak evaluated Mr. Dempster for his attorney in the Allegheny County Office of Conflict Counsel and believes that the case should have been transferred.
"It's a horrible thing to do to a kid."
Mr. Dempster's case echoes problems with delays in decertification hearings that have vexed the court system for more than a decade.
'Defeats the whole purpose'
Juveniles charged with serious offenses -- both homicides and other crimes listed in a 1996 state law known as Act 33 -- are treated as adults and have spent months or years in adult jails before getting the chance to make an argument for transfer.
"I have testified in over 350 Act 33 cases and over 25 juvenile homicide cases. I have never been involved in a case like this," Mr. Matuscak said.
For juveniles facing the potential of stiff sentences in the adult criminal justice system, the upside to moving to juvenile court -- called being decertified -- is tremendous.
"I can't see how there could possibly be a downside," said juvenile court Judge Kim Berkeley Clark.
In juvenile court, the focus for those found to have committed crimes is on rehabilitation, supervision and treatment, not punishment. There is no mandatory sentencing as exists for adults.
"I think it's unfortunate, 31/2 years. I mean, that defeats the whole purpose of decertification, of being considered," said state Superior Court Judge Cheryl Allen, a former juvenile court judge in Allegheny County.
"Clearly given the circumstances, those motions need to be not only filed, but they need to be heard in a timely manner so that the cases like the one you've stated would be avoided."
Homicide cases different
There is no guarantee that had the petition been heard, Mr. Dempster's case would have been shifted to juvenile court.
In fact, the Office of Conflict Counsel -- which represents clients the public defender's office cannot because of a conflict of interest -- did not file a petition to transfer until December 2009 because of an assumption that trial Judge David R. Cashman would deny it.
"Our explanation is we evaluated it," said J. Richard Narvin, the office's chief counsel. "I supported the decision not to file it. I authorized the decision not to file it. There was no way I believed it would be granted. I didn't think it was appropriate in this case.
"Best practice is we should have filed it earlier. Is it going to change the outcome of this case? No, it's not."
Attorney Veronica Brestensky eventually filed the petition during a lull in the case while Mr. Dempster's co-defendant sought a delay.
"The decision was made that since we're going to be wasting time, we might as well file a decertification," Mr. Narvin said.
Ms. Brestensky declined comment.
Judge Clark said lawyers tend to treat juvenile homicide cases differently from Act 33 cases involving other serious crimes for decertificant purposes.
"For whatever reason, there aren't very many homicide cases where motions to transfer are filed," she said. "I think most people perceive that murder is not appropriate for transfer. I'm not sure why. I'm not sure that's a correct assessment."
Delay for one affects both
According to police, on April 19, 2007 a person who said his name was Lance called Vocelli Pizza and asked for a delivery to the 500 block of Campbell Street in Wilkinsburg.
Deliveryman Boston Smithwick, 48, was fatally shot outside the home.
Police arrested Mr. Dempster and another juvenile, William Mitchell, who lived on that street. Both were charged with homicide.
An unnamed witness saw Mr. Mitchell, then 17, pull out a sawed-off shotgun, point it at Mr. Smithwick and pump it, according to a police affidavit. The witness heard a bang while running away.
Police also learned that Mr. Dempster told someone in a phone call that Mr. Mitchell pulled the trigger after the victim allegedly said, "You're going to have to shoot me" and attempted to grab the gun.
"We was going to rob him," Mr. Dempster told the witness, police said.
Lisa G. Middleman of the public defender's office, who originally represented Mr. Mitchell, never filed a petition to transfer her client's case to juvenile court. She said in an interview that she could not remember why she did not file.