Date Published: October 9, 2007
A 13-year-old Orlando boy beat and choked his 8-year-old brother to death recently.
He was upset because the younger sibling had eaten some dessert, according to The Associated Press.
If people call for a crackdown on juvenile offenders in the aftermath of that, who could blame them?
But be careful.
The state has headed down that road before - without desirable results.
At least that's the opinion of Walter McNeil, secretary of the Department of Juvenile Justice, and former Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan.
They were in Jacksonville recently as a juvenile justice reform commission, headed by Brogan, conducted public hearings.
Why not just "get tough" with young miscreants?
The two say that was tried in the early 1990s, after the Interstate 10 corridor shootings. It led to "zero tolerance" policies, which they say were counterproductive.
Most young people in the system, McNeil says, were referred by their schools - in many cases for "doing things we all did as kids."
"We were treated as bad kids. They're treated as criminals."
Why is that so bad?
"They're clogging the system," Brogan said, "costing us money that could be better spent on other things."
Zero tolerance policies sprung from good intentions. Save the crackdown for incorrigible thugs.
Other points made by McNeil and Brogan, verbally or in written material:
- Young blacks are five times more likely than whites to be detained.
- Most of the juvenile arrests are for theft, assault, obstruction of justice or vandalism
- Children as young as 10 or 11 years old have been arrested in this state, mostly for school-related incidents.
- Girls are the fastest-growing segment of the juvenile system's population. One of every four incarcerated children is a girl.
- Many of the girls are victims of domestic violence and are arrested for battery.
"They lash out and leave scratches on the perpetrator [of abuse]," McNeil says, "then he calls the police."
- Many of the male offenders already are fathers.
- A large number of incarcerated young people have mental health problems, and that can be treated more effectively in outpatient clinics than in the system.
- The violent death rate is four times higher among incarcerated youths than those in the general population.
Thoughts worth pondering while crafting reforms.
There are many causes of juvenile delinquency, including the growth of single-parent families and the failure of society to teach values.
The juvenile justice system cannot do anything about that. It can only deal with the consequences.
As McNeil and Brogan suggest, the commission needs to find ways of responding more effectively to minor offenders so better resources are left to handle the dangerous ones.
Florida Times-Union
October 9, 2007 Source: Florida Times-Union |